They Tumble Blindly As They Make Their Way
by youlooklikethunder
Summary: The Doctor hadn't taken another companion since Manhattan and his visit to a parallel universe did nothing but convince him he's better off alone. Spoilers are a thing of the past yet secrets are what lie hidden ahead in the Doctor's future. - Sequel to 'Justify My Thoughts Of Flight' (WIP)
1. Prologue

**_They Tumble Blindly As They Make Their Way _**

11/River, AU - Canon Divergence

PG (may vary)

Summary: _The Doctor hadn't taken another companion since Manhattan and his visit to a parallel universe did nothing but convince him he's better off alone. Spoilers are a thing of the past yet secrets are what lie hidden ahead in the Doctor's future._ - Sequel to Justify My Thoughts Of Flight

Disclaimer: Not my characters. This has been a disclaimer.

**Author's Note: **SO, just so we are clear this chapter is taking place a few months after River's death in the Library, years before the Doctor ended up in that parallel universe, to explain how it all took place with help from a VERY special character. The next chapters will be continuing from the way JMTOF ended. (Fic title from The Beatles song 'Across The Universe')

* * *

**_Prologue: New York 1947._**

The lights in the kitchen blinked from the not-so-calm rain that had graced Manhattan that morning. Rory didn't let that bother him and instead continued reading the morning paper in their very modest kitchen area. At least, he did until he heard a crash followed by Amy shouting unhappily from their sitting room.

Rory startled and stood quickly, not bothering to refold the newspaper and instead went to check what had upset his wife. He found Amy clearing the desk of various soaked through papers. The typewriter that sat on the desk was drenched as well.

"Oh, not again." Rory groaned, noticing the window beside the desk had been cracked open by something, allowing the rain to flow inside freely. He went to Amy's side to help her clear away her latest novel before all of it was properly ruined. He made it a point to step around the various pieces of glass were scattered from the breakage. Most of it was on the floor yet he was surprised to find some glass had been shattered with enough force to land on the desk.

"You know," Amy began, "its times like these that I really hate living here."

Rory understood Amy's frustrations. They'd had to move to five different places since they'd arrived in Manhattan nine years ago and this current apartment wasn't exactly their dream home. No, that one was somewhere in the future with a bright Tardis Blue door out front. It was probably leased out to some other lucky couple by now.

"Did everything get ruined?" Rory asked, grabbing a spare blanket sitting on a sofa nearby and hanging it over the broken window for the time being.

"It was rubbish anyway." Amy answered, yet Rory could see her disappointment. She'd been working on this book for almost a year.

"I better call the landlord." Rory said glumly, knowing the man wouldn't be happy to be hearing about another broken window.

"No," said Amy, "No, I'll call him. You have to get to work."

"Are you sure? I could stay." He offered.

"Course you can't, Stupidface. How do you reckon we'll pay for the darned thing if you lose your job because of it?" Amy reasoned. "They barely hired you in the first place."

Before Rory could answer back there was a knock at their door.

Amy eyed him worriedly. "You don't think he heard it break, do you?"

"Doubtful. He doesn't wake up this early." Rory answered but picked up the umbrella beside their coatrack, just in case. "Go get a frying pan." He told Amy. She quirked a brow and he shrugged, "Might be someone extra dodgy."

"Dodgier than our landlord?" Amy huffed and then relented. "Don't answer it without me."

Rory waited and whoever was at their door knocked again, louder this time. Amy was back at his side momentarily, the frying pan up and ready to be swung if need be.

"Who is it?" he asked when they reached the door. He found himself resenting the building they lived in. The doors didn't come with peepholes so it was impossible to better see who stood on the other side.

"A friend." Came the answer from a male voice they'd never heard before.

"A friend, eh?" Amy leaned in closer to the door. "How about a name, mister?"

"You wouldn't know my name." Replied the man on the other side. "But I can prove my business here if you'd be so kind as to open your door."

The Ponds could hear this stranger talking to someone else in a reassuring tone. They glanced at each other before Amy lowered the frying pan.

"Who's out there with you?" she asked.

"Open the door and find out." The stranger said.

Amy looked to Rory and handed him the frying pan. "Hit when and if he attacks." She whispered.

"No!" Rory whispered back, "We don't know who's out there."

"The point in finding out would be to open the door, which I'm doing." Amy said, "Be ready."

Rory rolled his eyes and took the frying pan from his wife. She waited for him to prepare himself before unlocking the three locks on their shabby wooden door and pulling it open.

There, before them, stood a tall, handsome man and someone smaller huddling into his long dark blue coat, trying to hide away from the rain. When the face of the child peaked out Amy's breath caught in her throat. Amy knew those bright orbs well. They were otherworldly in their startling shade of green.

"Mind letting us in." Said the handsome man, his smile wide and even a bit flirtatious. "Wouldn't want the little one catching a cold."

Amy was too busy staring at the little girl to reply so Rory was the one who answered. He had to grab at her wrist and pull her aside so the strangers could come in. The man closed the door behind them and as he did his coat swung aside. That was when Amy caught sight of the gun at his waist. Rory caught on as well and readied to swing the frying pan. The stranger seemed to sense their awareness and held both his hands up in surrender.

"I can explain." He said. "If you let me."

"You better make it quick then." Rory replied, eyes doing a quick once-over on the little girl the stranger brought with him. Amy could see the child got under his skin as well.

"My name is Captain Jack Harkness." Said the stranger.

"I've heard than name before." Amy recalled suddenly. "You know the Doctor, don't you?"

"Yes, ma'am, that I do." Jack nodded. "But I'm not here because of him. I'm here because your daughter asked me to deliver something." Jack pulled out a letter from his long blue coat. "And this."

Amy felt her heart hammering, her eyes travelling from the letter to the little girl beside this Jack fellow. The child's hair was a dark brown color and the familiarity of which her little fringe fell into her eyes gave Amy such a glorious ache that at that point she _knew_. She had to reach out for Rory before she collapsed to her knees.

"It's all in the letter." Jack informed and noting Amy's state handed the letter to Rory. "If you'll both excuse me, I have business to attend to. And you," Jack turned to address the little girl. He knelt down to her height and smiled, "You're safe now, kiddo."

"No more running?" She asked, her voice tiny and afraid.

Jack grinned yet Amy could swear tears were gathering in his eyes.

"That's the plan." He told the child. "Do me a favor, remember me like this."

Amy wondered what he meant but he said no more on the subject. Instead, he placed a kiss on the child's round cheek and told her to go sit on the sofa nearby. He waited until she did so before he stood to face the Ponds.

"It's a real honor to meet you both, finally." Jack said.

"Tell me how you got here." Amy demanded.

Jack smiled and shook his head, "I'd love to stay and chat, honestly, but I have a date with a few monks back in the future and heads will roll if I'm late. Like I said, it's all in the letter."

Rory's fingers twitched around the envelope in hand and he immediately handed it over to Amy.

"This will be goodbye." Jack informed them before walking over to their front door. He paused when his hand was around the doorknob, "Ah, and Mins here likes a warm cup of milk before bedtime, it steadies her nerves, so if you could get her one right now it would be for the best."

And out he walked.

Rory locked up behind Jack, placing down the frying pan and the umbrella. "I'll, erm, get that milk."

Amy glanced at the child sitting at her sofa before tearing into the envelope. Tears emerged as well as a smile when she first glanced at the penmanship.

_Hi, Mum. Hi, Dad. It's your daughter. I'm afraid I have bad and good news. Good news first. You have a granddaughter. Her name is Minerva Katerina Song. She's quite ridiculously perfect, but I suppose all mothers say that of their children. I can't tell you the exact date of her birth but I can tell you she just recently turned seven. _

Amy can see movement from her peripheral vision. She assumes it's Rory with the warm milk for Minerva and keeps reading.

_Okay, that's done with. Bad news now. I'm so sorry, Mum. Dad. If you are holding this letter, it means I am no longer around to care for her. _

Amy stops breathing.

_Now, Mum, I know you're first question will be why you. Why you and Dad and not her very own father, well, I've asked myself that plenty. The truth is, she will be safer with you. The Doctor has no knowledge of her birth or her existence and I plead with you to make sure it stays that way. At least until she is of proper age to choose for herself. So much has happened since we last spoke. So many versions of him, younger and more reckless, that it is wiser to leave her a secret to all but us. Please, take care of her and keep her safe. Even and especially, should the unfortunate time come too early, from her father. He's a good man, we all know this, but dangerous. I cannot suffer losing her like I lost the both of you, I will not. No matter how it pains me to keep this secret I cannot allow anything to happen to our little girl, not even him. I love and miss you dearly, evidentially until even my dying day. Your daughter, Melody._

"What does it say?" She hears Rory ask.

Amy doesn't answer but instead lets the letter fall to the floor. She walks over to the sofa and envelops the child in her arms, tears streaming down her face.

"It's okay." Amy tells her granddaughter. "You're okay now, Minerva Song. Everything is going to be just fine. You don't have to be brave all by your lonesome for a second longer."

Amy caught sight of Rory reading the letter, his frown now being accompanied with tears.

"We are here, we won't ever leave you, ever." Amy vowed and stroked the child's precious Raggedy Man-like hair. "And you are loved."

**XXX**

**_New York, 1957_**

Amy and Rory raise Minerva without much trouble until her seventeenth year. It's around noon when Rory gets a call from the hospital desk that his daughter was brought in. It always irked him to hear them call Mins his daughter, because truly she was not. She's his granddaughter but, of course, no one can know that.

She was bleeding out of her abdomen, the attending told him. She was stabbed for protecting Amy during a robbery on their walk home from the park.

Amy is by her side when he reaches them, crying and panicking because it's started. Even Rory can see the glow at the tip of Mins's fingertips.

"We need to get her somewhere, Rory!" Amy whispers fiercely. "We can't let this happen here."

And he knows she's right.

"Rory, what do we do?!"

When he doesn't answer she goes back to their granddaughter's side, stroking her floppy hair back gently and assuring her that everything was to be alright.

To be sure, they had gone over the whole regeneration duty with Mins. They'd told her of what she was and what would happen but just because they knew didn't make the fact that Minerva was literally dying any easier.

It was then that Rory got the idea.

"You're not going to like it." He told his wife beforehand.

As he expected, Amy hated the idea, but they had nowhere else to go. So they bundled Minerva's dying seventeen year old body, nicked meds to keep her death at bay for as long as possible and took to searching for the underground tunnels they'd learned of all those years ago when they'd first stepped onto American soil.

It was a truly haunting experience. Everywhere they turned they expected to be met with those creepy Silence creatures. It's then, carrying Mins through the tunnels, that Rory recalls a certain conversation with the girl's mother, his own daughter.

He'd asked what River had meant, _a worst day coming for you_, and River had answered him truthfully.

_The day is coming when I'll look into that man's eyes, my Doctor, and he won't have the faintest idea who I am._ She'd said. _And I think it's going to kill me._

Mins cried out in pain then. He and Amy could see the golden light starting to spread out, starting to push out and around.

"You are going to be fine." Amy promised their granddaughter. "You are safe. We'll be right here."

The hardest part was setting Minerva down and watch her writhe in agony while they moved as far away as they could.

Regeneration, a whole new coloring to work with, indeed.


	2. One

**_One._**

It had been a very dreary and silent four months for Madame Vastra and her wife Jenny Flint after returning from the parallel universe. They had not had a visit from the Doctor since and the constant worrying over his well-being only got worse every passing day.

From what Mickey Smith in the parallel universe told them they had instructions to follow and so they did, eventually.

The couple were to return to their own world and place the vortex manipulator once owned by Jack Harkness, later by River Song, at the doorstep of Amelia Pond and Rory Williams' old residence – or so Strax had relayed onto them. A card has seemingly been delivered by post while they'd been gone yet there was no return address on the letter.

The gadget had been almost a friendship bracelet of sorts for Jack Harkness and River Song.

Madame Vastra had come to learn over the years that apparently River Song had gotten a hold of the item from Dorium Maldovar upon Captain Jack's request. It still cost Professor Song a pretty treasure, dealings with Dorium always did, but it was hers in the end. After she died the vortex manipulator was sent back to Jack and he kept it until the day came where he had no use for it anymore.

If gossip was to be believed, the handsome Captain Jack had disappeared out of sight for an entire year and it cost quite a disruption with some very important people. Allegations that he broke certain time travelling laws concerning fixed locations came into play yet speculations turned quiet from one day to the next. There was never confirmations of where he'd travelled but one location named did happen to be New York. With the timelines so tangled it's no doubt there would be repercussion handed out for jumping in and out of there. With the quieting of such speculations the man known as Captain Jack Harkness had never been seen again.

Considering what he became, as far as Vastra understands, a head in a jar has no use for wrists or vortex manipulators. That's how the item came to be in her care.

Vastra was suspicious of the card and its demand, naturally. A vortex manipulator could cause much trouble in the wrong hands so she decided to do some research first. When two weeks passed and no sight of the Doctor arose, she had instructed Jenny and Strax to ready for a conference call. If anyone would know what was happening, River Song definitely would, only the Doctor's deceased wife never showed.

Something was definitely amiss. River Song never missed conference calls if she was summoned, so long as the Doctor's friends kept him from the knowledge of said meetings. When Jenny had asked the Professor why, River had smiled sadly and answered, _"Because I'm dead. You know that man as well as I do, if there is a shred of hope he will cling onto it. If he finds out there is a way of contact he will never move on."_

And not one of them could argue against that.

The thing is, with no River Song to help them there was likely to be no answers found. Not quickly, anyway.

"I'm afraid we are well and truly on our own." Vastra concluded after several more tries at conference calls. With River's continuing silence it resigned any hopes Vastra had to figure out what exactly lied ahead for any of them.

**XXX**

It was around the end of the fifth month that the Doctor's three friends received another letter. They gathered in the sitting room to discuss it.

"Still no return address." Vastra announced, slightly annoyed.

"I suggest filling your reptilian disappointment with the rush and exhilaration of battle." Said Strax. "Shall I ready explosives for your emotional healing?"

"No, Strax." Jenny Flint answered him, her own sweet sounding voice grim as well. She motioned to the unopened envelope in her wife's hands. "Are you going to open it? It could be from him."

Vastra offered an indulgent smile, "If it were, the shade of the envelope would be a different color. He so loves to make statements when he can."

"Maybe he's undercover." Jenny suggested with a shrug. "Better knowing than not knowing."

That much was true. Vastra tore open the envelope and was startled when a light beamed from inside, causing her to drop the item in hand. Strax was quick to arm himself, retrieving a fire poker that had been propped beside the fireplace.

"What in the world…" Vastra muttered as the light gathered in her sitting room to form a human figure. The image gave away no detail to the figure's face but a female voice blustered around them.

"You lot," it said, almost affronted, "I've need of that vortex manipulator. Seriously, I send a very nice, punctual letter and yet you've ignored doing as I ask. And I asked very politely! Do I have to come 'round myself and nick it from you like a common criminal?"

"Who is that?" Jenny whispered to Vastra.

"I don't know." Vastra told her.

"Here's the thing," the faceless figure continued, "Since written letters don't seem to sway you I'm sending a virtual image letter, thus, myself. You need proof I'm not going use the vortex manipulator to destroy the world and all that jazz, I can't give you what you require but I can give you a reassurance that if you don't send that little gadget my way the universe will be in a lot of trouble. You have questions, I have answers, but I can't give them to you. They're not _my_ secrets to tell."

The way the voice phrased that had caught Vastra's ear.

"If you'd please, with sugar and lima beans or whatever you folk like these days, do as my first letter requested I'd be so indebted to you," there was a hesitation before the adding of, "And so would he. You'll find a medium wooden box waiting for you at the location, if you do indeed do as I plea. Cheers."

Then the image faded, leaving the Doctor's three friends at a loss. Strax placed the fire poker back on spot and picked up the now empty envelope that lie on the floor.

"Who do you reckon that was, Miss?" Jenny asked.

Vastra stood decided, "I don't know, my dear, but it appears we have an errand to run. Fetch our coats, Strax. We leave for Earth tonight."

"Shall I pack the grenades?" Strax asked.

"No." Vastra answered. "But ready a teleport feed. We'll need it to get back."

**XXX**

Reluctant and full of nothing but unanswered questions, all three made the trip to Earth to lay the vortex manipulator as the first letter had instructed. As the figure had relayed to them, a medium sized box was awaiting them on the steps leading to the bright Tardis Blue front door that the Doctor had gifted to his previous companions.

Madame Vastra hesitated in placing the vortex manipulator in the box but eventually she did. The wooden box shut itself and a handprint glowed on its surface. In seconds the item disappeared into thin air.

Teleportation, was Vastra's immediate guess. Strax tried to trace the source but the search proved inconclusive.

"Let's go home." Vastra said finally.

Strax teleported them back to Victorian London. They hung their coats in silence once back inside their home until Jenny offered to make some tea.

"I'd love some, thanks!" Came from the other room.

Jenny gasped, "Oh, it can't be."

The Doctor's three friends shared looks before following the voice to the sitting room.

The visitor sat there waiting.

"Hello again." Said the Doctor, face ever so young yet the entirety of him looked so very old and tired. He sat on their sofa holding the empty, unaddressed envelope in his hand. "You all seem to be rather busy. I've been getting all sorts of readings on the Tardis about various travels from here to there and everywhere."

He stood and they watched him circle around them.

"Then I get a reading of such magnificent proportions that quite honestly astounded me at first glance. Time energy is radiating all over your home, the Tardis was attracted to it like a moth to a flame. She brought me here." the Doctor stopped his circling and looked at them, expectant. "Mind explaining that?"

Vastra, full less of bravery and more of outrage, marched up to the Time Lord and smacked him right across the face. The surprise made him drop the envelope and clutch at his quickly reddening cheek.

"Leave us." She instructed to Jenny and Strax. She waited for them to be gone before continuing. Strax, bless him, had the decency to shut the doors behind him.

"How _dare_ you?!" She shouted when they were alone. "Months, Doctor! It's been months!"

"_OW_!" The Doctor cried out, glaring back at her while nursing his sore cheek with both hands. "Totally unnecessary! And rude! And I tend to make people wait around for me if have you noticed!"

"We thought you dead!" Vastra raged on. "We are your _friends _and you dropped out of the world without a single word! Did you think we wouldn't notice?!"

The look of guilt settled on the Doctor's features and his shoulders sagged. Then he shrugged angrily, "I'm not sure why it's your business but I am sorry if you took offense to that."

Madame Vastra blinked upon the sight of him. She could hardly recognize him.

"What's happened to you?" she demanded. "You are not the man I knew."

"No." He agreed, though even he seemed saddened by that. "I am not."

The Doctor sighed heavily before moving back to the sofa and taking a seat, burying his face in his hands.

"So much has happened." He started, removing his hands and looking up at her. "I will never be as I was. The Doctor is dead."

Vastra's eyes went from him to the empty envelope he had dropped. She picked it up and went to sit beside him.

"This envelope arrived here by post yet there is no return address." She told him. "There was no letter either, not really."

She couldn't tell if that peaked his interest or not, it would have in the past. Regardless, she continued.

"Someone, or something, implanted a virtual image pop-out." Vastra relayed and held up the envelope. "This is genuine paper. It should not be able to hold such technology inside it. Not in this century, or the current one. But perhaps somewhere in the future…"

Madame Vastra watched the Doctor carefully. He reached for the envelope and she gave it to him.

"Well, such blast of technology would explain the energy clinging to your entire home. Technology from the future can leave a nasty aftereffect when used before it's time." He glanced at her, considering. "What exactly are you suggesting?"

"I am suggesting, Old Friend, that maybe it's time I told you the truth." Vastra said.

"The truth about what?"

Vastra shut her eyes and took a deep breath before confessing. "About the fact that I've been conversing with your dead wife behind your back and keeping it from you because she asked me to."

The Doctor's jaw went tight and he looked away. His anger had become a calm, quiet sort of rage and if pushed the wrong way it could become deadly. So Madame Vastra didn't push, she waited.

"How?" He said finally, voice tight and eyes still avoiding resting on her again.

"A conference call, of sorts." She answered. "It's a psychically-induced way of communication procured while one is unconscious. Dreaming has its very own sense of time travel, wouldn't you agree?"

When he didn't comment she figured she should go on.

"Professor Song insisted we keep this from you. She thought it wouldn't be likely for you to go on with your life if you still had ties to your past keeping you from your future. We agreed."

The Doctor rose from the sofa and started pacing. The silence extended and Vastra was beginning to grow concerned until suddenly he snapped and started smashing various breakables in the sitting room. Her favorite vase was among one of the Doctor's victims.

When he turned to address her an accusing finger was pointed her way.

"You had no right," He told her, "either of you. I want to speak to her, _now_."

"You can't." Vastra said. "She's gone."

His face grew even paler than before. "What do you mean gone?"

Vastra stood, smoothing out her long black gown. "We've tried to contact her yet she didn't show up. The envelope you still hold did."

The Doctor looked back down to the item.

"I am sorry for keeping this from you, truly." Vastra offered him. "I hope you can find it in you to forgive us because by the looks of it you will need all the help you can get."

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_**Hopefully this chapter explained how Oswin got a hold of River's vortex manipulator adequately and provided you with the River/Jack Harkness BROmance we all need in our lives.**_

_**(And how vortex manipulators are actually supposed to be used as BFF bracelets, duh.)**_


	3. Two

**_REMINDER, I AM diverting from canon, so things are happening a bit differently in this story. Thanks for sticking with me so far. Enjoy._**

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**_Two._**

It was the bathroom mirror breaking that gave off a warning Amy finally learned to recognize.

During their time in Manhattan, she and Rory, they'd not picked up that happening as something significant. In the olden days, when she was young and still had a life that included the Doctor, it was the meteor showers that gave away timey-wimey activity. Soon after such sightings, River Song would pop up in their backyard and they'd have themselves a proper family gathering. Those days were long gone now. Ages away, both backwards _and _forwards in time.

The thought that somewhere out in the universe she and her daughter possibly still had contact in some mad way or other was a comfort. Rory had passed away three years back at the age of 82 and Amy finds that missing him also gave light to how much she'd missed River too. She's always missed her, of course, but it was easier pushing those feelings away when Rory was around to cheer her. Rory was gone now and it was getting harder to find cheer in much but Minerva anymore.

After her granddaughter's first regeneration they'd had to disappear from Manhattan. The three of them relocated to Brooklyn and lived a very quiet, but happy, life. Rory worked his way up to becoming a full medical doctor and Amy honed her writing skills, producing her multi-chaptered children's book _Summer Falls _and so many others. She started working on a manuscript for _Night Thief Of Ill-Harbour _too.

That manuscript was finished now, which was the reason Amy and her granddaughter had found themselves back in Manhattan once again. Amy's publishing house was there and they'd requested her presence for the book design. She and Mins had started off in a modest apartment building but after the first month in Manhattan they'd decided to stay, affording a nice little house with more than enough space for the two of them. It had been lovely and carefree up until Amy heard the cracking of glass in the bathroom.

"Broken glass the giveaway to alien activity instead of meteor showers." Amy muttered to herself when she went to inspect the damage. "I will never be impressed with that."

"Is it fixable?!" Mins called from the other room.

Rory, rest his soul, had hypothesized it was the time energy to blame for the glass breaking. That it probably clung to them still after so many years of time travelling so whenever things of the spacey-wacey kind were happening they would be the lucky ones to get a broken glass somewhere near them that would probably needed fixing. Amy had gone along with that only now in this time there was something, _someone_, more probable: her dearest Minerva.

It had crossed Amy's mind since before they moved back. She was the daughter of the Doctor and River Song. The regeneration energy she'd let out into the Manhattan air all those years ago had to have a reaction back then with the timelines around New York and now the return of her presence was not likely to be met without_ some_ sort of chaos. Besides, Amy had long learned not to dilute herself with the notion that everything would be just fine. Coincidences never happened to them without a reason.

So, from the second the 'alien alert system' went off coupled with the simple fact of Mins's parentage and how likely their history of dealing with chaos was to be passed onto her, mostly on the grounds of _the Doctor's daughter, duh!,_ Amy initially did what had to be done. She had to get Mins out and away from the house.

She wasn't the same girl she was at seventeen (understatement) but if some big bad was coming for her Amy wasn't about to give them a head start. It broke her heart, the idea that her granddaughter would have to start running, but if it kept her safe there was no arguing against it.

"I think you're going to need to go buy some tools from the shops." Amy hollered from the bathroom. Her voice had thickened some with age and it sounded gravely even to her own senile ears.

Before Rory passed away it would have been him heading out with their granddaughter on an 'errand' to get her out of eyesight and keep her safe but with Rory gone Amy's only option was to send Mins out on her own. Her granddaughter is a grown woman now, yes, but it still doesn't ease her conscience to send her on her own.

Mins appeared at her side with some dusting tools for the broken shards of glass and handed it over. She leaned against the door-frame and crossed her arms over her chest. "Didn't Gramps have some spare tools lying around somewhere?"

Amy smiled, her heart giving a heavy ache at the mention of Rory.

"Those rotten old things?" Amy snorted, "They're useless, trust me. Go buy some new ones. There's some money in my purse."

Mins raised her brow knowingly at her grandmother before shrugging, "If you say so, Nanna."

The girl kissed Amy's cheek before going and doing as she was told. Amy can hear the side door of their kitchen shut a few minutes later and exhales in relief. Not for the first time Amy finds herself thankful that Mins is much like her mother this time around. River's adult years rather than her teenage ones, that is.

There are however the few oddities that are all her father's traits though. There's the complete disregard for planning, the whole Making It Up As We Go Along is not something Amy is fond of, to be sure. The girl has better fashion sense than her dad yet there are the few exceptions where she'll don something equally ridiculous and insist it's _cool._ Like the red cape Mins found at a garage sale when she was eight and refused to take it off until she was twelve. Mins is not exactly shy, she's as blunt as her mother was but there is the_ deer-in-the-headlights _look she gets every once in a while that is the exact same one the Doctor used to get in the early days when River Song stopped by in the Tardis and started throwing all sorts of innuendos his way. It makes Amy laugh heartily, those blessed similarities. The joy of having a part of her Raggedy Man there with her, even if he's not.

Mins no longer resembled the Doctor as she had before she'd regenerated at age 17. In fact, Amy's grandchild returned to them in the body of a four month old baby. Her eyes once green had become a pale blue, almost translucent. Her mop of dark brown hair was transformed into a beacon of light in the color of bright orange. The strands, when they grew out, proved to be and unruly set of locks, setting as it pleased no matter how Amy tried to style it. Minerva's red hair looked like fire coming alive when the wind blew through it. Her skin also was no longer only a milky pale but now she was dotted with freckles.

Once their granddaughter started talking it was clear she'd adopted Amy's Scottish tongue. Amy remembers thinking, _finally! A proper ginge! _Rory had been slightly disappointed, losing a tenner in a bet with Amy on what Minerva's nationality would end up being didn't help._ ("We live in America now, she'll be American." Rory had said. Amy had shook her head at that nonsense, reminding him of Melody regenerating into Mels and how places had nothing to do with the process, people did.)_ He'd be groaning miserably about another Scot in the house constantly and how he would need backup for such things but truly, deep down, he was so very pleased about it.

Perhaps the only physical thing that remained telling of the Doctor's genes flowing through Minerva were the set of gangly limbs that sprouted when the girl went through a sudden growth spurt at the age of nine. As of today the girl stood taller than Amy by an inch or two. She had the long, thin legs and knobbly knees that were all in the fashion of her father's. Minerva's arms were still thin, spindly looking things – always had been - but the girl had an otherworldly strength in her that once shown what she was made of no one could ever think to name her frail, no matter her body type.

Those thoughts seemed to bloom from lifetimes ago, Amy thinks while she cleans after the glass and throws the broken pieces in the kitchen bin afterwards. Minerva may look only nineteen years old to the human eye yet in truth she was decades older than that. It's a remarkable thing, Time Lord aging.

Amy then opens the cupboard beneath the sinks and bends down to remove the various cleaning supplies stuffed inside. Her knees ache from the hard floor but she ignores her joints and their protests. When it's empty she pulls open the secret compartment she'd made a few days after they'd moved in, reaching inside and searching. She finds what she's looking for.

It's not long before a familiar static sound appears and the smell of something burning fills her nostrils.

"I've been waiting for you." Amy says, having to take hold of the side of the kitchen sink for support to get herself standing again. When Amy turns around to face the intruder she's surprised by how young she is. And blonde. The intruder however seems just as surprised by the gun in Amy's hand.

"Who are you?" Amy demanded, noticing River's vortex manipulator strapped around the young woman's hand. It was enough to give her pause. "Did you steal that?" She motioned with the pistol to the gadget that used to be around her own daughter's wrist.

The young woman held both her hands up in surrender, smiling. "No. I did not, Amelia Pond."

"Williams." Amy corrected. "My name is Amelia _Williams_."

The blonde shrugged, "Didn't think you'd be the type to condone use of a weapon, if I'm honest."

"Neither did I." Amy replied. "But I'm an old woman now and I still have some protecting to do."

"You said you've been waiting for me, then you must know why I've come." The girl said. "My name is Jenny, but you can call me J. It's what my friend calls me."

Amy smiled back but it wasn't a kind one, it was one with bitterness laced in the gesture because there was something she'd been hiding. For the past year she'd hidden the documents and doctor visits from Mins, hoping it would get better, hoping the diagnosis would just disappear. Sometimes she even hid it from herself but now with this Jenny girl appearing in her kitchen wearing River's vortex manipulator the truth was plain and there was no denying. She was most definitely not long for this world.

"I know my daughter." Amy said, tears gathering in her eyes. "She was never caught unawares, not if she could prevent it. She's River Song, she always knows."

Jenny nodded.

"So," Amy continued, her palm squeezing around the pistol in her hand nervously, "that said, I had a feeling she'd probably planned something for this. She wouldn't leave her baby alone in the world if she had any say in it. She proved that when she sent my granddaughter to me when the time came that she wouldn't be able to care for her anymore. I know my daughter and it's only plainly logical to assume River would have planned for when I became unable to do that as well."

"You're good." Jenny breathed out, her white teeth gleaming as her smile widened.

"I know what I am." Amy snapped. "I don't need you telling me. What I need to know is how."

"How." Jenny repeated and blinked at Amy curiously.

Amy shrugged, "You say you didn't steal that thing on your wrist so if you are telling the truth you must have known her."

Jenny's smile slipped when realization set in. The girl looked truly gutted by the topic Amy was aiming for. That was enough of a confirmation for Amy to lower her gun.

"You mean how she… died." Jenny concluded.

Amy sighed and set the gun down inside the sink before continuing.

"That's the only thing I never figured out, you know? With the timelines being so split hardly anyone travels to New York in this time. Not even River dared to try it, not after everything." Amy paused, having to recollect herself before she continued. "When Minerva arrived I waited for years for My Raggedy Doctor to show up and tell me himself of what happened to my daughter but… I guess he was too scared of what I would say. So please, if you are telling the truth, then tell me. How did my Melody die?"

Jenny wore a sad smile on her face when she replied.

"She died saving millions, including the Doctor."

Amy had somehow known in her bones the second her granddaughter's tiny face peaked out from Jack Harkness's coat that River was gone but having it confirmed in words only made the ache burn all the more. Tears fell down her old, wrinkled face.

"My brave girl." She whispered to herself, shaking her head sadly and wiping her face clean with the back of her hand. "She was always so brave, my Melody." She told Jenny. "I searched for her. All around New York, I did. Even after Mins came, I still looked for her, but I never found her."

"I have this for you." Jenny was holding out a letter.

Amy remembers when the handsome Jack Harkness did the very same thing, only back then he was handing Minerva into their care. From the looks of it, this young woman was looking to take her away.

"What is it?" Amy asked, feigning indifference.

Jenny's smile was back, fully beaming. "It's my proof, of course."

Amy hesitated, wondering if it had been wise to place down the gun.

"I'm not going to harm you." Jenny said, as if reading her mind.

"Ha!" Amy said grumpily, moving over and snatching the letter from the girl's hand. "As if you would dare. I'm royalty to your likes, am I not?"

Jenny laughed. "I can see why the Doctor liked you."

Amy stopped halfway through opening the letter and stared at the blonde. "You know the Doctor too then?"

"Just open the letter." Jenny advised.

Amy glared at her for a few seconds before doing just that. There were several pages and the penmanship was not one she knew but the more she read the more she found she couldn't stop. By the time she finished and looked back up to the blonde she had no idea how to exactly react.

"You're…" Amy began, only to be cut off by the door at the side of the kitchen opening up.

"A'right. I've got the proper tools of the trade, Nanna. What say you to demolition first of the entire bathroom bef-" Minerva stopped, staring from Amy to the blonde stranger in their kitchen. She set the bags of newly bought equipment she'd been told to buy on the table and turned to examine them both properly.

"So who's your new friend, Nan?" Mins inquired. "She's a bit young for you, if you ask me."

Amy couldn't help cracking a smile at that but it soon fled from her face.

Minerva noticed and Amy saw the girl's face change as worry took her over. "What's wrong? What is it, Nanna?"

"Nothing, love. Nothing's wrong." Amy assured, walking over to her granddaughter and taking her hand. Amy motioned over to Jenny. "This girl, her name is Jenny."

Amy eyed the blonde and a sadness filled her heart. Amy had been the only family Mins knew of that was still alive other than the Doctor. Now this stranger was here, this girl, this Jenny. She'd come to take Mins away, Amy knew, but she'd never expected this. For Jenny to be of actual relation to her granddaughter. A half-sister, of sorts.

It may be selfish of her to think of it, but she had liked this time together. Just her granddaughter and herself. This wasn't the case anymore, though. Amy, whether she liked it or not, was old and dying. Mins shouldn't be all on her own, not when she needn't be. Not when this person had River's vortex manipulator and obviously held her memory with such a deep admiration. Not when there is someone else out there who obviously wanted and was willing to care for Minerva. To protect her and to keep her safe, as it seems Amy would no longer be able to do in the near future.

Amy knew what the right thing to do was, even if she didn't want to.

"Minerva," Amy said, gripping Minerva's hand tighter.

_It's time to start running now,_ she wanted to say, because it would probably sound cooler to put it that way. A bigger part of her wanted to scream_ Don't leave me! _But mostly it was_ Goodbye_ that was on the tip of her tongue.

Instead, Amy pulled her granddaughter into her arms and hugged her for what she was sure would be the last time. Her eyes shut and she remember River, and River's hugs, and River's laughter and oh, how she _missed _her brave little girl.

Amy pulled away reluctantly, her tears falling freely.

"Nanna?" Mins wiped away at her grandmother's tears, her young face so concerned. So confused.

"Jenny is your sister." Amy chose to say, because_ goodbye_ suddenly hurt too much.


	4. Three

**_Three._**

Amy watched Minerva carefully. Her granddaughter's brow furrowed and her eyes held questions, then disbelief, and finally anger.

"No." Mins looked over to Jenny and glared. "I've got no sisters. No brothers neither."

"Mins," Amy started, remembering the letter in hand and looking down to it.

"No!" Mins shouted and the volume caused Amy to flinch away from her granddaughter.

Mins then walked over to Jenny, stopping right in front of her, seething. Amy is surprised by how alike her rage is to the man she'd once called her best friend, her Raggedy Man.

In her height, the redheaded Time Lord towered over the blonde yet Jenny didn't seem to flinch. She met Minerva's stare without hesitance.

"Who are you?" Mins demanded. "Why have you come?"

"For you." Jenny answered. "I came here for you."

"Why?"

The blonde smiled widely, "I'm here to take you home."

Mins scowled, "Who do you think you are coming here and saying that? I _am_ home."

It was Mins saying those words that made Amy realize how much of a lie that was. Not a whole lie, but something of one. She watched her granddaughter grow and mature and all the while there was a wistfulness inside of her that did the same. Amy knew it well. She'd been through it herself. Missing the extraordinary while being stuck in the perfectly ordinary, only there came a time where Amy chose this ordinary life willingly. Minerva hadn't. In fact, her granddaughter never even got to see what, by definition, is her birthright. She is a full blooded Time Lord and she longs for those stars. One only has to look at the girl to see that she's been left standing still, bursting within herself from being denied the chance to truly soar. Mins may not even realize it yet, probably has no idea that need is in there, but Amy does. It's time she acknowledged it so that Mins could do the same.

Her granddaughter is still mouthing off at Jenny when Amy cuts her off.

"You aren't though." Amy said sadly, folding and unfolding the letter she still held in her hand.

Minerva's attention settled back on her grandmother.

"What?"

"You aren't home."

"Nanna…" Mins's voice sounded small and hurt.

The sight was so utterly painful for Amy to behold. She walked towards her granddaughter and placed the letter in her hand, closing Mins's palm around the papers.

"I love you so much, Mins." Amy attempted a smile. "But if you think this life is enough for you, you're wrong. Deep down you know it too."

Minerva's face hardened. Her stubbornness was taking over, her eyes hard and voice tight when she spoke.

"I won't leave you." She proclaimed.

"I know." Amy laughed and it ended with a sob. "I know that."

Amy pulled her granddaughter into her arms and hugged her tight. It was now or never, so she whispered, "But I'm afraid it's me who's to be leaving you."

Amy felt Mins's body go stiff in her embrace, frozen the moment her words had sunken in. The choked, strangled noise that came from Minerva's throat made Amy squeeze her tighter.

"I've lived my life and I've had my share of stories." Amy told her. "It's time to live out your own. Make some stories," Amy pulled her head back to look Mins in the eye. They were already red and tears trailed down her precious face. Amy wiped the falling tears away before cupping Minerva's cheeks and remembering words spoken once a very long time ago.

"Listen to me, every life is a pile of good things and bad things, alright?" Amy said. "The good things, they don't always soften the bad things but vice versa the bad things don't always spoil the good things and they most definitely don't make them unimportant. And you," Amy brushed a strand of Mins's red hair behind her ear, "You, my sweet, brave, wonderful girl. You are on my pile of good things I never knew I'd have again. Your mum and dad, they would be so proud of you. So very proud."

Mins cried harder.

"You are going to go, do you hear me? You are going out there and no matter what happens, no matter where I am, I am going to watch over you still."

And Amy did smile then. A genuine one, because she realized goodbyes weren't always necessary. Goodbye isn't always how you finish a story. Sometimes all an ending means is a new beginning.

"I'll watch you run." Amy promised, and knew down to her long-grown old bones that no matter what awaited her in the afterlife, she would.

**XXX**

The Doctor spun the envelope in hand around and around between his fingers, stopping to peek inside the paper item and ending up scowling for probably the millionth time. He'd been at it relentlessly for the last ten days, charging to and from the Tardis like a madman to ask Vastra, Jenny and Strax of anything that came to mind while he inspected the piece of paper. Anything that could possible prove to help him find out more about this mysterious envelope with no return address.

In spite of his tireless efforts there remained no trace of the packaged pop-up his three friends were presented with when they had first opened it. There had been no left over technology when he'd scanned it. No left over data of what model produced such a thing to narrow down exactly what year said technology was from. There was simply nothing. Absolutely nothing.

"You've not slept, I see."

The Doctor was surprised by Vastra's voice. He hadn't even heard the Tardis doors open. She offered him a fresh cup of tea. He tucked the envelope inside his jacket pocket and took the cup gratefully.

"Can't." He said, taking a sip. "Sleep, that is."

"Would you appreciate being drugged?" Madame Vastra offered and the Doctor had to chuckle.

"No, no. I'm fine." He assured. "I'll sleep when I'm dead."

"That's is not a comforting thought." Vastra informed.

The Doctor sighed and set the cup down.

"You've redecorated." His reptilian friend commented, her eyes taking in the new layout of the Tardis.

The new design was a purely mechanical one, greys and shiny metal overshadowing the once homey and yellow warmth of a color it used to be when Rory Williams and Amy Pond had been aboard the ship. Vastra doesn't miss how the entirety of it practically screams how much of the Doctor has been lost and how all that remains is the shell of a man once so full of life.

_He is a hardened man,_ Vastra realizes,_ where there once resided kindness and hope at his core something else has spread. _

"It's nigh unrecognizable." She told him.

"That was generally the intent." Said the Doctor, lifting himself from his seat and moving over to the monitor.

Watching him, Vastra wonders if his hearts would ever be capable of being reversed from their path of turning into solid stone or if it truly was too late.

He started typing into the keyboard, "I've found no trace of technology left behind in the envelope. Everything I've tried to extricate in forms of technology readings is a dead end so I finally decided to give up on that route."

Vastra frowns. _He never used to give up._

He went on, "If we have any hope of connecting the dots it's proving to be an utterly rubbish idea to put our hopes behind that as a possible lead and so I've been thinking instead about the paper used."

"The paper?" Vastra neared him, looking upon the monitor.

"Yes," he confirmed, fetching out the envelope and swatting her gently on the nose with it. "The paper. See, if we find out what kind of paper it is, the tree used – if it is even a tree, that is - and the chemicals used to contain a hologram pop up without leaving any evidence behind it could be exactly the clue we need in order to proceed. If we find that then perhaps we can track down the makers of such a masterpiece. Of course then we will have to stop them from continuing the production of such items for the rest of existence because lack of evidential proof will help no one, least of all the human race. Or anyone, as a matter of fact. Just imagine what would happen if the bad apples in the universe could get a hold of such a thing."

He shuddered at the thought.

"I'm assuming you have no plan as of yet." Vastra said.

"Oh, you know me." The Doctor strode around to the other end of the console. "Making it up as I go along. Works well enough."

Vastra allows him a small smile. "Best get to work then, Time Lord."

"On it, ma'am." He says with a salute, quickly taking to pulling levers and pressing buttons and such.

When she exits the Tardis and shuts the doors the blue box dematerialized almost immediately. She can only hope that this time he'll return to them sooner than his previous disappearance.

**XXX**

The Doctor had begun to input all information he'd worked out so far into the Tardis to be analyzed. Surely something in all the years of accumulated data would turn up something relevant to his cause. He was typing with quick fingers and trying to suppress the wanting glee that is starting to bubble up inside of him. He doesn't want it, not anymore. Fun, for him, is over. This is simply taking care of his own messes for once.

"Well, Old Girl, I've nowhere left that I want to go." The Doctor says to the Tardis, finger hovering over the _enter _key on the keyboard, "All I'm going to ask of you is that you do what you do best. Take me wherever it is that I need to go."

There was a time where her answering hum and vibrations would bring a smile to his face. Those days were long gone. If the universe expected a _Geronimo _to accompany him on this journey, the universe thought wrong.


	5. Four

**_Four._**

Jenny had to keep glancing at the redheaded girl keeping stride beside her. Minerva had been completely silent the entirety of the way since they'd left her grandmother's home. Sullen and heartbroken, she was. Jenny knew the feeling well. Being taken away from someone you loved, or them from you. Either by circumstances or the universe or any other thing that can get in-between, because they usually do.

Minerva had been told to pack lightly but that made no difference with the vast amount of length they had to walk. It was indeed a long way since they'd started off. New York was a ticking time bomb and landing there was like setting fire to a room full of gasoline, so in hopes to avoid more damage, Jenny researched the area scrupulously for years before all of this actually took place. She'd found there was a certain area that would be a safer ground for a time traveler to take off on. At least she hoped.

"It's not long now." Jenny assured Mins but got no response from the girl.

The blonde was tempted to reach out and place a comforting hand on the other girl's shoulder, or perhaps give her hand a tiny little squeeze. Something that said _I'm Sorry_ and _It Will Be Alright_ all in one gesture. This wasn't the time though. With any little push Minerva could very much change her mind and head back to her grandmother. Jenny couldn't allow that, couldn't _risk _that. And it wasn't so much to do with the reason she'd been sent in the first place, not anymore. It was different now, it was personal, because this girl beside her was of her own kind. The proper kind, anyway. Minerva Katerina Song was in every sense her half-sister and Jenny knows she's not likely to ever get another one. She had to protect her, no matter the cost.

Jenny led Minerva through Manhattan until finally she hailed over a cab and they both got inside. It took them longer than Jenny would have liked to get from Manhattan to New York on account of the traffic so it had turned dark out. Minerva kept to her silence the entire way.

The car eventually pulled up beside an alleyway.

"You sure I can't get you girls somewhere nicer?" The driver asked. "Sure isn't a good idea to be out in these parts all on your own."

Jenny assured the driver they would be fine and paid him in cash. With a fretful look as the sisters got out of his cab he drove away.

"This way." Jenny beckoned Minerva to follow after her. They went down into the alley, the dark sky making it hard to see the path ahead. Jenny reached over and grabbed Minerva's hand so she wouldn't fall behind. They twisted and turned through the brick-like maze. It seemed to go on forever.

Jenny stopped finally and pulled back the flap on the vortex manipulator strapped to her wrist. As she typed in coordinates she cast a glance Minerva's way. The girl seemed slightly spooked, her lips pouting and brow wrinkling.

Jenny smiled, "Sensing something?"

Mins's eyes fell back on the blonde but the girl didn't retort.

"You should." Jenny told her. "According to a homeless bloke and his description, in 1970 your mum regenerated on this very spot for the first time. That energy, it's residual. Something or other about fixed times, I don't really pay attention to the technical stuff if I'm honest. There are other spots in New York like this. The Empire State building, for instance. Nasty Dalek business in the 1930s. We could've gone there but it would be a bad idea. Too many tourists."

Jenny held out her arm and waited for Minerva to take it. Mins entwined her arm with Jenny's hesitantly.

"Taking off from here will give us a better chance of keeping anyone up in space from tracking us down. I'm kind of breaking galactic government law by traveling here." Jenny took one more look at her half-sister. "You might want to close your eyes for this one."

Minerva sighed, obviously annoyed with Jenny's suggestion but the girl did as she was told.

Then they were gone.

Seconds later a wind caught in the air and the Tardis materialized.

**XXX**

"You rang, I came." Are the first words out of Oswin's mouth when she arrives at the Stormcage Containment Facility. She walks closer to the prisoner's cell and slips past the metal bars, gliding through, ghost-like as ever.

The man is huddled up in a corner, knees up to his chest and face covered with dried and new blood. The bruises along his cheekbones are fresh, the purplish-blue color confirms that. When she reaches a hand to further inspect the injury he flinches away from it.

"Okay, okay." She takes several steps back. "I get the memo, no touching. Sorry. They did a real number on you, this lot. If only they knew why you did it."

"They can never know." He told her, his words coming out like it agonized him to even try. Oswin knows he speaks the truth, because no one can know. Not yet, not this.

He hardly looks like himself anymore. Soon enough his sentencing will be announced and he won't ever be again.

"I don't got much time, you know how it is." She told him. "State your business, Captain."

Captain Jack Harkness exhaled noisily, moaning from the pain of doing so and opened his eyes.

"That thing you implanted," He began.

"The Occipital Lobe thingamajig," Oswin finished. "I remember."

"They're going to find it soon. If they find it…"

Oswin caught his meaning instantly. "It fired off, didn't it?"

His silence was her answer.

"What did you see?" She asked him.

Jack tried to sit up straighter but his body was too sore to move much. "It happened while I was being interrogated this morning. It saved me from having to be fully conscious for this little beauty." He lifted his shirt and there was a nasty burn mark reaching from the top of his ribs down to his navel. "Anyway," he continued, "I only got a glimpse. It felt like getting shot by lighting. An alleyway."

Oswin nodded, "Okay. That's good, that mea-"

He cut her off. "And the rift. My rift, in Cardiff. If they land there, they'll need a place to hide. I won't know her then, it'll be too early. If I turn her away…"

"You won't." Oswin said confidently. "You should know me better by now, Captain. I sent my associate prepared."

Jack seemed to relax completely. "Oh, that's good to hear. If I wasn't being tortured by the hour I'm sure I'd kiss you right now."

Oswin smiled sadly. "I can block it out, you know. I can make you numb to the pain, if that's what you want."

Jack shook his head. "No."

"You've done your part."

"And it was my honor." Jack assured. "I spent a whole year moving from place to place all across time and space with that kid, and not just for my friends. I love that little girl like she was my own daughter and I kept her safe when her mom asked me to. If that means I'm to die here, like this, then that's a life well spent in my book."

Oswin smiled, "You're a good man, Harkness."

"So they keep telling me." He grinned back, his busted lip making the smile turn into a cringe. "Besides, it's time I go join Ianto. He's going to be pissed I made him wait so long. Maybe we'll deflower a cloud or two up there beside the pearly white gates." He joked. "Give all of heaven's occupants a show they'll remember."

Oswin truly frowned then. She knew Jack wouldn't die here. He'd end up a big head in a jar but she wasn't about to take his hope away from him. Not now. He needed that hope in order to get through these next few days before it happened. And as River Song would say, spoilers.

"Alright then." Oswin knelt before him and opened her palm, light swarmed from her fingertips. "This might sting a little. Like a thousand little ants chewing through your skull. You okay with that?"

"Get on with it," Jack said through gritted teeth. "I've literally had worse."

Oswin focused the technology to go through the skin at his forehead and into the root of his mind, sending the decomposing energy field to find the little metal bug she'd implanted in the Captain's brain a few years back. Jack suffered his agony in silence until his body couldn't take it anymore and he blacked out.

In the space of three minutes the device was fully extracted. His jailers would find no trace of the device even if they'd known to look for it.

"I'm sorry." Oswin said to him before her image broke apart and faded into thin air.

* * *

_**So, there was a specific Torchwood reference to Ianto Jones and his death in this chapter that broke my heart to write. If it did the same to you, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. And also there you go, the reason Jack Harkness disappeared for a whole year. He was taking care of River and the Doctor's little girl at River's request until the time came for him to deliver Minerva to Amy and Rory (See: **Prologue**)**_


	6. Five

**AN: Several guest appearances in this one. Specifics at the end.**

* * *

**_Five._**

The blue box that had materialized sat parked in the New York alleyway. The occupants inside scurried to the door, the Doctor's current companion excited to see New York for the first time.

Martha Jones and the Doctor rushed outside only to be met with the darkness of night.

"I don't understand." Said Martha, glancing at the Doctor beside her. He looked just as puzzled as she felt.

"Oh, that's not right." The Doctor said, his nose wrinkling in confusion. "I set the coordinates for New York but this is," he paused, raising his finger in the air for a moment before popping it into his mouth. He hummed, "Oh, this is definitely New York but not 1930s New York. How strange…"

Martha Jones took another look around. "Well it's not too bad. Maybe we could get some dinner or something. New York is New York, after all."

"Nah!" The Doctor shook his head adamantly, much to Martha's disappointment. She would have liked a dinner with him, alone and without so much running. His confession in their last trip was weighing on her mind. How he'd told her the truth about his people and the Time War and how he was the last of his kind. She hadn't known what to say so instead she just listened and found herself overcome with how much she truly had begun to feel for him. It frighteningly felt a lot like love.

"I promised you the Empire State Building in 1930, I'm giving you the Empire State Building in 1930." He told her. "Never say I don't take you anywhere, Martha Jones."

He took Martha's hand in his and led her back inside the Tardis, setting the coordinates once again and thinking of how odd it was for his blue box to land in an alleyway in the middle of nowhere. She'd never done that before.

The next landing was a much better one and right on spot too. Martha had the reaction he'd hoped for when she turned to find the Statue of Liberty at direct eyesight. Oh, it was marvelous, he thought. New York in the 1930s. And, as they would soon find, Daleks.

**XXX**

It had been a week since Captain John Hart had shown up and completely thrown Jack Harkness's life upside down. His old partner from his life working as a Time Agent not only seriously stole the spotlight from his return to his team in Torchwood but, then again, not all of them had been overjoyed of his return as he'd expected them to be. In all honesty, they were pretty pissed at him for ditching them. That he understood. He remembers how pissed he was when the Doctor left him all those years back so he knew it would take time. Doesn't it always?

"Oh, what have we here?" He heard Owen comment outside his office. Jack stood from behind his desk and made his way over to find Gwen and Tosh looking over Owen's shoulder at the computer screen.

"What is it?" he asked.

Gwen looked back at him, "It looks like some kind of energy is working up in the Rift."

That certainly got his attention. Jack made quick, long strides to get to where his team stood and saw what they were talking about for himself.

"That's not just any old energy source." Jack muttered, knowing Vortex Time Energy when he saw it. He hurried back to his office to get his coat and his gun. He glanced at his vortex manipulator and hesitated. If the readings on the computer were correct it would be a bad idea to wear it when he met whatever, or whomever, had caused the disturbance.

"Jack." It was Gwen. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Jack took off his vortex manipulator and shoved it into his safe, locking it.

"You know what it is." Gwen concluded.

"Care to share with the class?" That was Tosh.

"No time to explain." Jack rushed past them but Owen grabbed him by the arm before he could take a step further.

"Seriously?" the man said, "You piss off to your bloody secret Doctor and leave us to take care of all this stuff, and all we get in return is more secrets?"

Ianto walked in just then with a box of pizza. He noticed their tense looks. "What's going on?"

"Oh, just Jack and his secrets." Owen released his hold on Jack. "What else?"

Jack sighed, "This isn't the time okay. I'll tell you everything as soon as I'm able." He promised.

"At least give us something, Jack." Gwen said gently. "Haven't we earned that much?"

Jack looked to the four of them and nodded. "We could have a paradox on our hands. That reading, it's from a vortex manipulator. My vortex manipulator."

Tosh blinked, "Are you saying there's to be two of you walking around Cardiff?"

Jack shrugged, catching a glance at Ianto and pleased to see the man seemed more than okay with the idea of two of him.

"I don't know." Jack allowed truthfully.

"Then isn't it a bit foolish to go meet yourself out there?" Tosh questioned. "Paradox and all, I mean."

"Tosh is right." Owen agreed.

"I don't think that's an issue." Ianto said, catching all of their attention. He pointed to the computer screen closest to him. "Seems whoever it is, they're on the move and are just about to knock at our front door."

"What do we do, Jack?" Gwen inquired and Jack found himself thankful for her putting the ball in his court, so to speak.

"Ianto," Jack said, "Go see who it is. We'll monitor from here."

"Leave the pizza." Owen told him. Ianto rolled his eyes and set the pizza down before going up to greet whoever was coming into the Torchwood offices.

Jack moved over to the screen and watched pensively, wondering if it was really a future him or a past him at their doorsteps. Or, worse, if it wasn't him then who or what could possibly have their hands on his vortex manipulator?

**XXX**

Amelia Williams was on her death bed and coughed ferociously, her lungs clutching inside of her and making her whole body tremble with agony. Blood quickly took to appearing in the white napkin she'd used to cover her mouth. The cancer had indeed spread in the last year. Her doctor's say they're amazed she's lasted this long but it wasn't really like her to simply go gently, no matter what destination awaited her.

The drugs were good though they seemed to help little these days. When it got to the worst of it, her sickness, money came in the post one day without a return address. There was only a note inside with the name of a hospital scribbled onto it and her heart almost burst from recognizing the penmanship. It was Mins's handwriting and Amy couldn't help be so glad that wherever that granddaughter of hers was, she was safe enough to send her old Gran back some cash in her time of need.

That's how she'd ended up here, in a hospital just outside of Connecticut. It was a private hospital with good caretakers, a very personal touch to their care here. Amy complains to them all the time but they just take her ramblings with a warm smile and she's glad for it. She'd not want to be cooped up in a proper hospital full of people wandering the halls and nurses only coming in to check she hadn't died. They were good to her here, she told her own stories full of adventures and running and aliens and they all suffered them patiently and at least looked, or pretended to look, interested. They in turn talked of their days too, of their families and friends and she learned to live vicariously through them. Yes, good people indeed.

"How are you today, Mrs. Williams?" Nurse Penny asked when she made her rounds in the morning. She was a young and cute blonde thing, so peppy and naturally good-hearted that Amy took to her instantly.

"Dying." Amy replied casually.

Nurse Penny gave her a small smile and shook her head, "Nonsense. You're far too young."

Amy gave a small chuckle, though it hurt her to do so. Nurse Penny checked her vitals before upping her pain meds and sitting down at the chair beside Amy's bed.

"What would you like to talk about today?" the nurse asked her. "I warn you, my day after work yesterday had quite an awful lot of ups and downs. You probably won't believe they actually happened when I tell you."

"You'd be surprised." Amy replied. "The life I lived makes me more than likely to believe anything. These eyes have seen enough to know anything is possible."

Nurse Penny smiled at her and reached to grab Amy's hand, "And that's why you're my absolute favorite."

Penny started off with her home life and that deviant husband of hers. By what she's heard, Amy thinks they married younger than they should have but doesn't relay that out loud. She feels her body calm and soon her eyes have slipped shut, listening to Penny and enjoying the pain medication while it lasts.

She's sure she's fallen asleep when a much missed wheezing groan catches her ear. She smiles and thinks of that wonderful blue box in her youth and how she dreams of it still, always. She's never forgotten. Amy can almost feel the gust of wind given off when the box would show up and when it would take off.

Nurse Penny gasps, the sound of it is frightened. "Oh my god."

Amy opens her eyes and the blue is brighter than even sunflowers. Nurse Penny has gone stiff at her bedside and is gaping at the Tardis in shock.

"Told you it was true." Amy says faintly and her breath catches the moment she hears the doors being unlocked from the inside.

* * *

**So. Timey-Wimey happens, thus, The Tenth Doctor & Martha appearance just before the fourth episode of the 3rd Series Daleks In Manhattan, directly after the episode Gridlock. As far as I know at this point this is only a once to happen with the 10th Doctor appearing in this AU. It was just something I thought would be fun, the "what-if" scenario plays nicely I think with the whole Tardis taking the Doctor where he needs to go, no matter the face her wears and whether he realizes it or not.**

**Also, The TORCHWOOD team serves as another guest appearance taking place directly after the first episode of Series 2 Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, though they will be part of a more than once appearance.**

**And to clarify, the letter that came from Minerva to Amy in the post is from a future Mins where... well, spoilers.**

**Hope that isn't too difficult to follow.**


	7. Six

**_Six._**

The Doctor grabs his coat hastily from where he'd draped it over the console. Before he could shrug it on entirely he heard a small yet echoing sound. A sort of _clank_ish noise, something small coming in contact with something else, something hard.

He turns and finds nothing amiss around him but when he glances down to the Tardis floor he sees it. It's the flash drive John Smith had given to him before he'd departed from the universe that wasn't his own. The one with the supposed answer he'd searched for and could never find on his own. The ultimate solution to the most painful of all his problems.

_It'll work,_ John had insisted. _You'll get her out._

He hadn't even gone through the information though his entire being had wanted to. At first, anyway. Days went by and then even more of them passed. He'd grown weary over the contents stored inside, too tired to even try to hope or act on the information he'd been gifted with. He couldn't find an ounce of strength inside of himself that would provide him with what he needed. The energy that would make him believe, no matter how impossible the task, that it was worth the effort to _go_ and _try_ and _do_. He'd either succeed or he'd fail. He felt he couldn't survive failing and so he reasoned that the only way that wouldn't happen is if he never even tried.

So, ultimately what it came down to is he'd grown cowardly the more the time had passed. It doesn't bother him as it should and he's grateful he lacks that ability.

The Doctor sighed, finally moving to retrieve the small item from the floor and tucking it away in his top pocket where it would no doubt stay. Of course, he would have placed it elsewhere only he couldn't bear to do that either. He had to have it close but hidden, had to know it was there in reach just in case he changed his mind. It will however remained as is, tucked away, accessible yet untouched. It's very much a representation of the universe that still turns and exists and how he's done nothing to join it. To move on. He figures the irony in that should have suffocated him by now but unfortunately it hadn't.

When the Tardis finally lands he forgoes on environment checks. He trusts the Old Girl did as he asked, though she did take a bit longer than usual to arrive at whichever destination she'd brought him to.

Time and too much space, both of which serve him no good without someone by his side to share it with.

He takes long strides over to unlock the Tardis doors, a hand pushing forward without so much as a second thought.

His first though is _how?_

His second is interrupted by her voice, thickened from age and sickness.

"About time you showed up, Raggedy Man." Says Amy. He notices that the simple effort it takes to speak leaves her breathless. He doesn't want to see this yet he can't look away. He's walking forward before he even realizes it, nearing though all he wants to do is turn away and go back into his Tardis. Fly away and never look back.

He glances at the nurse sitting at Amy's bedside. She's sitting still, frozen from the shock of his abrupt entrance.

Amy reaches her hand for him and he takes it. She's pulling him to sit on the bed she's bundled up in. The wires attached to her are impossible to ignore, as is the beeping on the monitor that keeps track of her heartbeat. Her heart is beating slower than it should be. It's the beating of a dying heart so it's comes as a complete surprise when she slaps him right across the face, making it count by focusing all the weight and strength she has left in her sickly body.

He's silent in his reaction, his face turned sideways while internally he's screaming from the complete agony it left behind.

Amy's eyes are all fury but her voice comes out calm and controlled. "And that's for my daughter."

The slap was apparently loud enough to snap the nurse at her bedside back to reality. She then proceeds repeating _Oh my goodness_ almost as if it's a chorus, one that will never end.

"Oi, hush yourself! It's not every day I get family to come visit." Amy tells her, voice sharp and quieting Penny instantly. Her eyes rest back on the Doctor, "Oh, by the way, a gentle when it should be a very loud because I _am _supremely cross at you reminder that you should feel really, really horrible about that." She pauses before adding, "Among other things."

He realizes then that she knows. He doesn't know how, but she knows.

"This is dangerous." He chooses to say, avoiding the subject. "The Tardis landing in New York. I don't know why she did, more importantly how."

Amy coughs before informing him that they are _so_ _NOT in New York, moron_.

It's at that point that Penny interrupts. "I can allow you some privacy if you'd like"

The Doctor gives the nurse a weak smile, "I'd appreciate that very much."

Nurse Penny look to Amy to make sure it's alright to leave her and nods her head when it's obvious that it's more than okay. Once she is gone the Doctor reaches to take one of Amy's hands in his.

Amy smiles sadly. "You should have been the one to tell me. You're her husband and my best friend. It should have been you."

The Doctor looks away, tears he can't even attempt to stop slide down his cheeks. "I know."

When he recollects himself he decides he has to ask.

"Who told you?"

Amy closes her eyes, sighing.

"Spoilers, Raggedy Man." She opens her eyes again and he can see the genuine joy she feels from finally getting to say it herself. She raises a brow before saying the word once more. "_Spoilers._"

It's more of a whisper, this one is private, just for him. He immediately picks up on there being something more to it. A hint of sorts with an underlying meaning attached.

Unbeknownst to the Doctor, Amy did have more of a solid clue for him to work with. It was relayed to her the day her granddaughter took off with her half-sister. She hadn't any idea why Jenny had told her about it at the time but she realizes what she's supposed to do with that information now.

"You know how there's that thing about messages in bottles?" Amy asked, not bothering to give him any chance at answering. "There's probably a planet somewhere out there that's specifically dedicated to such things, yeah?"

The Doctor's brow furrowed. "I suppose."

"Do me a favor, Raggedy Man." She said. "Give me my last one, my dying wish or whatever you call it. You find that planet, do you hear me? You find it."

Her order was final. He could do nothing else but nod.

"I will." He promised.

"Good." Amy's body seemed to sink further into the mattress, whatever tension had worked up in her slipped away easily. "And who knows, you _might_ even have a bottled message." She smiled cryptically. "Wouldn't that just be ever so interesting?"

He blinked one too many times and that's when she knew he'd finally caught on. It hurt to laugh but she couldn't hold her amusement to herself. She marveled her bowtie wearing best friend and wondered just how he managed to be this all knowing madman, saving worlds and the universe time and time again, yet he could be so utterly clueless in certain subjects. Those of the personal kind filled that category nicely.

"Hey," she called softly, squeezing his hand and pushing through the sudden pain in her chest so unlike the kind she's experienced before. She smiled at him.

He smiled back at her. "What is it, Pond?"

"Gotcha." She murmured, exhaling her final breath.

Amelia Williams shut her eyes and she did not open them again.

* * *

**YES, I cut this a bit short but something _is_ better than nothing right?**

**So, the whole message in a bottle thing ties in with actual canon according to _Jenny's TardisWikia Page_ under "Other Matters".**

**The passage relayed the following: **  
_"After leaving Messaline, Jenny met a man in a cantina who told her about how messages used to be placed in bottles and thrown into the sea. Jenny then wrote a letter to her father, explaining that she wasn't dead and while she didn't know how to find him, she was having fun and hoped to make him proud. She placed her letter in the bottle and hoped that one day her father would find it."_


	8. Seven

**_Seven._**

Oswin had busied herself with cleaning out several data bugs that had wormed their way into the Library's hard drive again. It was messy business and she'd nearly lost the last bit of archives that remained unharmed since the planet had overrun with Shadows.

A state of melancholy followed her throughout the day for somewhere out there in time River Song's mother had passed away. When she finally was able to set her tasks for the day aside she headed to her usual place of solace, the space occupied with what remained of the woman named Melody Pond.

"My condolences." Oswin told the unconscious woman that had been in her care for so many years now. "I'd like to have known your mum. She seems a real firecracker. And that dad of yours as well."

Professor Song did not reply. Her body remained a lifeless entity. Technically, the woman wasn't asleep. There was no consciousness in that head of hers but she _was_ alive.

Oswin genuinely felt sad for the loss of River's mum but she consoled herself with the fact that this was the moment she'd been waiting for. This event had to pass in order for everything to start aligning.

River, her mum and her dad had been a family of paradoxes and fixed points. The fact that they had existed at all and the universe allowed them to was a miracle of sorts. Then again there was that whole incident with rebooting the universe via big bang two but that's not the point.

The point is, there was absolutely no way Oswin could restore River Song to her full self until Amy and Rory's final hour came upon them both. Only until their existence was finally and truly over would Oswin be capable of ensuring the woman could resurrect to her proper self. Those were just the plain and unfortunate facts.

Oswin's amazed at the astounding amount of effort time and space had to shift around in order to accommodate the presence of the Pond-Williams brood. The three of them had mattered that much in the world and had to have existed no matter the cost, whether that meant cracks in time or starless skies.

"Now, Professor Song," Oswin addressed her somewhat-of-a-patient, "You'll owe me big for this one. Don't think I'll be forgetting that just cos you're a saucy little mischief with _great _hair."

Oswin realized oddly enough that such a description fit into what she considered her kind of woman. _Saucy. Mischief. Great hair. Yep, that about covers it._

She did miss her very own blonde and saucy mischief maker. Sending J off to protect River's own little girl was something that had to be done but that didn't make Oswin miss the girl any less. The Keeper Of The Forest sighed, nostalgia filling her senses and tying her heart up into aching little knots the more she mulled over the giant gaping hole J left behind. Every moment without her presence becomes unbearable on a whole other level.

The room that served to preserve River Song had always been eerily quiet but the silence that Oswin is met with now seems to be of a harsher kind. It echoes the true extent to River's complete lack of self presently.

"Best we get a move on." Oswin relayed, knowing she'd receive no response in return. She forced herself to focus. "Right," she exhaled, "X051 Protocol, stat."

A backup control panel materialized in front of her and she inspected just how far off River was from awakening properly. River's mind had to be shut down completely, devoid of all function and transferred into the hard drive that had been under Cal's command.

Oswin remembers looking on as River sacrificed herself for the Doctor that day. She remembers moving her body to safety and the Library closing down permanently. She'd learned that she had to keep River's mind from responding to any outside treatment while her consciousness lived on inside the computer's hard drive. Brain activity would have proved utterly useless and River's body had been an irreparable force in those days.

Then the Shadows somehow infiltrated Cal's virtual world and that was something Oswin hadn't planned for. It became another damper in her efforts to restore River Song back to life. Downloading River back to her own body had been the tricky bit. All that Human plus Time Lord energy being pumped back inside a less than secure body could have ruined everything.

Luckily, it didn't. The Shadows had done their damage though and River's brain did the only thing it could do. It flicked the off switch, plunging her even further from reality. The ability to reboot cognition in the woman's brain at that point would have been a human equivalent of trying to saving files into a flash drive only for the computer to suddenly die on you, wiping out massive amounts of irreplaceable data. Erased, just like that.

The only way to get the Professor's brain up and running again would be to shed some light into the darkened nights her consciousness had retreated to.

"And I've got just the thing too." Oswin grinned, typing a command into the control panel.

The information relayed back to her made Oswin scowl.

"Jesus, that Chinny Boy husband of yours hasn't even plugged the stupid flash drive into the Tardis yet!" Oswin shook her head, so very much disappointed in him.

"So much for John Smith's late night hard at work and the whole dying bit in order to actually pass that information on." She grumbled unhappily. "No matter, he won't help us along so I'll just do it myself. _Again_."

The brunette waved a hand over the control panel and the image swirled in various circles before disappearing entirely.

"After this I expect an official award with my name on it. Oswin 27810, it'll say. Oswin 27810 For The Actual Win."

Satisfied with her terms she relocated to the safe house that held Jenny's shuttlecraft. She climbed in and turned on the communications data, making some choice changes that would definitely get the attention of the person she sought out. Oswin pushed the phone call into orbit and waited for it to be picked up by any satellite dish that happened to be near her location.

"Kate Lethbridge-Stewart's phone," Came a female voice blustering from the speakers, "One moment please."

_Huh, must be an assistant._

"Ma'am," Oswin heard whomever answered say in hushed tones. "The number, I recognized it. It's him. It's _him_!"

The daughter of the great Brigadier was the next to speak.

"Doctor," Kate answered, assuming the call was from indeed from him.

"Close enough." Oswin told her. "I implanted the Tardis phone line to come up on your mobile, it's the only way I know you'd pick up.

"Who is this?" Kate demanded.

"Who I am doesn't matter." said Oswin, "What matters is you need to obtain something that is far too dangerous for even the Black Archive."

There was silence.

"Still listening?" Oswin asked.

"Closely." Replied Kate.

"The Doctor has a flash drive, the data on that little beauty has knowledge of the Doctor's own personal life that could prove disastrous for everyone involved if fallen into the wrong hands. I need you to persuade him to upload that data into his Tardis and I'll wipe it out the second it's uploaded."

"And how can I be sure you're not under the 'wrong hands' category?"

"Kate Lethbridge-Stewart." Oswin smirked. "You are very, very good. What do you know of the Library?"

This next silence felt like one of realization.

"Personal." Kate repeated, voice gone quieter, more sullen. "I know of it, yes. He did mention losing someone dear to him a long while back. He did not however provide the specifics."

"It has been a long while." Oswin agreed. "Let's not make it any longer for him then, eh?"

Oswin knew this ask was a bit much. It was probably going against every protocol UNIT had when dealing with an unknown source randomly phoning one of their top people. That if Kate did proceed to act on this she would be doing so with no solid proof of whom had phoned her. Then the whole disguising herself under the Doctor's phone number did happen to be a tad bit shady. Oswin only hoped what little she did reveal would be enough.

"How exactly do you intend to procure this information?" Kate questioned, curious to what Oswin would answer. "No one can extract information from the Tardis. It's protected against such attempts."

"You're right on that one, except I won't be extracting anything. She'll be the one sending it to me."

Kate momentarily went speechless. Clearly she'd not been expecting _that_ answer.

"How?"

"Because she's alive in there," Oswin replied, "and she knows what she's doing. I'd not want to be the one foolish enough to go and get in her way. Would you?"

_Especially when the Child Of The Tardis is the one the Old Girl's set on protecting. _Oswin commented internally. One just shouldn't go about messing with those of the Motherly Instinct variety.

"I can look into it." Kate said finally. "I can probably suggest but I won't do so outright. If it's of the Doctor's personal business then it's no one else's."

Oswin nodded contently. "I can work with that."


	9. Eight

**_Eight._**

"You're certainly taking the change in scenery better than I thought you would." Jenny remarked after Mins had opened her eyes.

Mins can't disagree. Things were happening around her, things she didn't understand, and yet here she was. Standing in a world so different than the one she knew, eager to take them in instead of questioning them. She thinks of how they'd gotten here. The time travel thing. The experience had made her fingertips go all tingly. Her hearts sped at a pace she'd not known they could. The entirety of her being felt alight with something she couldn't understand, something not human.

The life she'd lived with her grandparents had been a constant day to day simplicity that made that little fact easy to forget. By some miracle she'd been born a full blooded Time Lord instead of just human plus. She'd had a Mum once. A Mum who had loved her and was the best Mum to ever exist. She had a Dad too, one she'd never met but never once did her Mum fail to remind her that he was out there somewhere. That when the time came he'd know of her and that he'd love more than anything else in the universe.

It had been a long time since she'd properly thought of her Mum. Of massive curls and warmth and happiness. Of safety and love and _home_. Mins can hardly remember what her mother's voice had sounded like, the years had dulled that memory, stolen it from her, but she can remember feeling a connection that ran so deep she couldn't even begin to describe it.

She was just a little girl when everything went wrong. It was late in the night when her Mum woke her from her bed and explained to her about the tall man who was waiting in the sitting room. That he was a close friend and he was here to help her, help them. Her Mum had told her she was to be a good girl and that Captain Jack would protect her and keep her safe. She told Mins that when it was time he'd get her to the two people in all the world who would keep her safe and cherished and loved. She told Mins that she loved her and then she had hugged her tight, the way she always did. So tight that it took the breath right out of you.

Mins remembers knowing it was the last time she'd ever see her Mum again. She doesn't know how she could possibly have known that back then but it didn't matter. She'd been right.

She remembers the days that came after. Being separated from her Mum felt like she'd lost a part of herself, a part she'd never gotten back. She'd cry herself to sleep while Captain Jack held her tight, telling her not to worry and that everything was going to be fine. Whenever she'd ask for her Mum he'd get a sad look in his eye but he'd never give her an answer.

She thinks about it now and realizes the reason he never answered her is because he wouldn't have been able to lie to her. He'd been good to her when she was with him. He was her best friend for an entire year. Then, just like her Mum, he was in her life and gone the next. She'd never seen him again.

"Hey," Jenny's voice brought her away from her thoughts. "You alright?" Mins nodded. A sweet smile spread over Jenny's face. "You do know you're going to have to talk to me sooner or later, don't you?"

The girl looked at Mins earnestly, she was trying with everything she had, but Mins couldn't find it in herself to produce anything other than the ability to breathe just yet. She'd just left her Gran, who had just revealed being sick and would probably need Mins now more than ever, but instead she did what her Mum had. She'd sent her packing with another stranger, away from all she knew and loved. It was too much. It brought back too many losses.

"Listen," Jenny said. "We're going to visit some people who can help us keep out of situations that would prove disastrous for our well-being. The thing is, they won't know us yet, or no. Actually, _he_ won't know you yet. Time travel, pesky little thing, but that said he will help us. You can, under no circumstances, give him any information on how the both of you met. If you alter one detail of his past things could work out very different in his future."

Mins nodded again, thinking she'd hardly be able to tell this person Jenny's going on about anything important. She can hardly manage to produce any sound to come from within her, let alone a full sentence.

"Great. Better now that later." Jenny gestured for Mins to follow after her. She led them to a building not too far off. The sign on the front entrance said it was a tourist information office. Mins started to go in that direction but Jenny caught her arm and shook her head. She pointed to the Roald Dahl Plass instead.

Mins followed Jenny until she stopped abruptly and was then waving to no one in sight.

"Hello, Torchwood." Jenny said. "I'm requesting a meet with the Captain please. Urgent business to discuss."

Mins stared at the blonde beside her, trying to convince herself she'd not heard right. Jenny couldn't possibly be referring to the Captain that Mins had in mind. It couldn't be Captain Jack.

_He won't know you yet._

"Ladies," came the voice from somewhere behind them that Mins recognized automatically. Her mouth fell open upon the sight of him, of Captain Jack, walking up to them, a man at his side. "Mind telling me how you came to know of our secret little abode?"

Jenny raised a brow. "Our father made a trip here once a very long time ago."

"And exactly who would your father be?" The man beside Jack asked. His hand rested at his hip which made it a poor attempt to hide the weapon he obviously had there.

Mins barely registered Jenny's hand gripping hers and squeezing gently. The gesture was appreciated.

"I believe Jack has that knowledge already." Said Jenny. "He just hasn't realized it yet."

Jack eyed the two of them suspiciously. "Your father?"

"You can call Martha Jones if you'd like." Jenny suggested. "She was there when I was made. Or Donna, she was too, but then…" she frowned, "You can't call Donna."

"I'm sorry," the man beside Jack looked so very lost, "_What_?"

"Oh, God. Not that way!" Jenny laughed. "Sorry. That came out a bit wrong."

Mins kept her eyes on Jack and he seemed to notice because suddenly his eyes were on her. Whatever he saw must have given him something to go on because his suspicion left him entirely.

"Ladies," Jack joined them where they stood. "After you."

Then they were moving downward and being greeted with a whole other world beneath the one they'd just been standing on.

**XXX**

It had been surprisingly difficult to track down. The Doctor would never have guessed how many planets had shrines and celebrations, religions even, dedicated to messages in a bottle. A specific planet prided themselves on finding people their soul mate. He was tempted to give it a go but he already know who his soul mate was, he didn't need a bottled up message to confirm it.

The Tardis finally lent a hand but only when he'd gotten so frustrated and decided to give up in his search altogether. Amy had asked him to find it and he'd tried. It was hardly his fault he couldn't find it.

He was intent on heading back to Vastra and Jenny and Strax to inform them that he could no longer help them. He had no desire to find out who had sent the unmarked letter to their home. He was officially retiring. The Old Girl had a rumble or two to say about that. She completely disregarded the coordinates he'd put in and by the time he'd got her back under control she had already landed.

He looked around the Tardis, angry beyond belief.

"You took me to see her die and now you expect me to just go out there again? Taking me where I need to go, eh? I don't buy it, Old Girl." He told his empty Tardis. "I don't care anymore. I'm not going out there, not again. You can't make me."

The power went out and he chuckled, remembering she'd done this before when she thrust him into a universe that he didn't belong in. The very one he had to leave empty handed.

"Very lovely." He muttered. "Just wonderful. Shut down on me, yes, that's completely mature of you. You forget I can manually restart you if I must."

He started on his way out of the console room to do just that only a sturdy wall came down at the entryway, blocking his way out. In all his fury he marched up to the sleek and silver blockage of his Tardis's new design and his fists came banging against the impenetrable object. All of his anger poured out until he could no longer feel his hands and his knuckles were covered in blood from where the hard surface had broken at the skin.

He exhaled, his body sliding down onto the floor. He cried. He doesn't know for how long but he knows it's been waiting for this. His grief had waited for this moment to come along. A moment where he was weak and vulnerable and trapped. A moment that refused him the chance to escape what he was constantly running from. To face the ghost hidden in the shadows of his broken heart, the one that haunts him at every corner. He runs and he runs and he keeps on running because if he stopped it would hurt too much. To acknowledge it, that she was gone and she wasn't coming back. It never seemed matter how fast or how far he'd run. Never once had it stopped hurting.

He doesn't bother wiping away the tears or cleaning the blood his fists are now covered in. It's too much effort to even stand but he doesn't have much choice in the matter. The Tardis is quite stubborn when she wants to be.

Not much surprised him these days but what he finds waiting for him does just that.

"Hello." The Doctor greets Ood Sigma.

"We have waited for you, Doctor." The Ood replies.

"Here to tell me my song is ending again? Or perhaps another one of my friends will knock to my demise but this time it'll be five knocks instead of four."

"You are angry."

The Time Lord laughs and the feeling starts to come back to his knuckles. "I'm tired. I've had my time and now I'm done. Let's get this over with."

"But this story is not over." Says Ood Sigma. "A new melody has yet to be sung. This song has just begun."


	10. Nine

**_Nine._**

* * *

___He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing... the fury of the Time Lord... and then we discovered why. Why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he had run away from us and hidden. He was being kind... _

* * *

Jenny was explaining to Jack's associates the reasons for their abrupt visit. Jenny wasn't telling the whole truth, leaving out the technicalities of the Time Lord bits especially, but she held their attention while Jack escorted Mins to the examination room.

Jack told her to hop onto the gurney so he could perform some _meaningless but mandatory_ tests. So here they were. Captain Jack with a stethoscope pressed against Mins's chest. He must have heard them, both her hearts, because when he looks back at her face there is awe and genuine astonishment there instead of the resigned façade he'd hid behind for the first of Jenny's ramblings.

"Two hearts." Jack states as he pulls away and removes the stethoscope. "You don't hear that every day."

Mins watches his every movement. She watches him move aside to mark some things down on the chart he'd brought and she watches him walk across to the other side of the exam area to put the stethoscope back in its case. He lingers there for a bit and she knows it's because he's unsure of what to say. Of how to act or even begin to ask all the unanswered questions still left to seek. She's on the exact same island.

"Our father." Jack moved a rolling stool along with him and sat down in front of her. "She said our. As in both of you. I'm assuming that makes you sisters?"

Minerva nodded.

"Have you ever regenerated?"

Another nod.

"Does he know?"

She doesn't confirm or deny and that's answer enough.

"Jack." The woman, Gwen, calls from the railing above.

"Sit tight." Jack tells Mins, a smile accompanying his request before he follows after Gwen. Jenny joins Mins after Captain Jack left the room and hops up to sit beside her.

"You alright?" Jenny asks. She doesn't really expect an answer though, and Mins is grateful. They sit there, companions in silence. It's nice.

**XXX**

Ood Sigma looked on the Doctor curiously, his head tilting in assessment. "You do not seem relieved."

The Doctor grimaced. "Hasn't anyone read the memo? Relief and I have separated. Officially. The divorce settlement has yet to fall through."

"We have waited for you."

"Yes, you said that already."

"It is time to stop waiting." The ood moves aside, clearing from the Doctor's path forward.

Without the ood blocking his view and taking all of his attention, the Doctor is able to properly take in the sight around him. The atmosphere around him is a fog, misty and thick, though where most fogs are grey and dusky this one is shaded pastel purple. Soft and calming. The water beneath him is not a typical clear either. It's a soft pink with white roses floating above, entwined by their roots. There are endless candles placed a few paces away from each other. They serve as the only source of lighting in every which way that surround him. The way the soft yellow glow spread its light upon the meshing colors offer a lovely contrast. It highlights and joins the soft pink of the water and the purple shades of the fog. It's a lovely scenery and manages to take his breath away, a true beauty to feast your eyes upon.

"Take caution, Time Lord. The solid ground has an end."

The Doctor takes a few hesitant steps forward and takes quick notice to what Ood Sigma is referring to. The solid ground that supports his weight starts receding until it has fully been engulfed by the water it leads to.

Through the mist he notices a boat fit for one person only is travelling towards them. He glances back at Ood Sigma, expecting his questions to be met with more questions instead of answers, but the ood is gone. His Tardis is the only presence around him.

The boat has no oars nor does it have anyone to navigate it and the Doctor wonders just exactly how he was supposed to get anywhere without either of those things. He steps inside anyway. Once he's seated safely the boat moves by its own volition. It seems to know where he needs to go so he lets the boat do its job and settles for enjoying the tranquility of the scenery around him.

**XXX**

Owen Harper leaned further back in his chair. "Well, I still don't trust them."

"You don't have to." Jack says, not bothering to hide his annoyance at Owen's deliberate attempts to annoy him in return. "This isn't something any of you should be involved in. When Martha gets here-"

"What do you expect us to do then, Jack?" Gwen demanded some truth for her, for everyone, because they deserved that much and she knew that he knew it too. "Are you going to disappear and leave us here like you did the last time?"

"That was different." Jack reminded. They went over this already.

"You say that about everything that connects to this Doctor of yours." Owen chimed in, all cheek. "You trust us enough to hire us but you don't trust us enough to help you, is that it?"

"It's not that I don't trust you!" Jack insisted. "In that other room," Jack pointed to the direction that held the Doctor's daughters. "In this office we have two things that could either impact the world for the better or be the making of its destruction. If the wrong people got hold of them..."

He didn't even dare to continue that sentence.

"Jack," Tosh called on his attention softly. Her smile was kind but Jack could see the ambivalence there. "How can two girls time travelling possibly bring forth that sort of damage?"

A wry smile appeared on the Captain's face. "Because you have no idea who you are dealing with."

Gwen comes to stand at his side, silently willing him to look at her. "This devotion and blind faith you have to this Doctor you know only leads me to believe that he is a good man, Jack. Are you telling me my assumptions are wrong?"

Jack hurries to clarify. "He _is_ a good man, Gwen. He's saved countless lives all across time and space. He saved my life, made me a better person. He saved Martha's life. He's saved your lives and probably your parent's lives and their parent's lives and on and on. He never stops, but I can guarantee you that if those girls come into any danger, if word reaches him – and it will, his enemies will make sure of that – their father will not hesitate to destroy anything in his path to keep them safe. Do you know of any father who wouldn't?"

The room became eerily quiet. Not one of them could argue against that.

"There are various accounts of a Time Lord's fury and I can look them all up if you don't believe me. I've had reliable sources telling me he's suffered many losses recently."

Martha had informed Jack that Kate Stewart had two encounters with the Doctor not long ago, both with a different face than the one Jack knew. UNIT kept track on him every once in a while, just in case he was needed. It came in handy in the long run. The first time UNIT came upon him he was accompanied by two companions, a redhead and a nurse. The second time he came alone. That was never a good sign. The Doctor never did handle losing people he loved very well.

Jack looked at his team, each of them, and hoped they would start to grasp exactly how delicate this situation was and how easily it could turn the Doctor into something so completely unlike himself. Something that would make demons, as well as mankind, run. Jack could promise his team one thing.

"His wrath won't be kind this time around."

**XXX**

The boat came to a halt in the middle of the large lake. The Doctor looked in every which way and found nothing and no one in sight. The water began to ripple and the boat shook from the motion beneath it. Then, as sudden as the ripples began they abruptly stopped. The water flowed gentle and calm once again. It look inviting, cleansing even, so the Doctor dipped his hands into the colored water, wincing as it met the broken flesh gained from the foolish outburst he'd had in his Tardis earlier.

With this face he'd been given a calmness that accompanied his anger. It was one thing when he could control it. Times where he could hold it off and tuck it away and keep himself from acting upon his fury. It was the complete opposite when it erupted and blinded him. Conquering over the goodness in him and filling him with a rage that ran endless, enveloping and consuming and shaping him into the destroyer he'd tried so hard to deny seeing the light of day.

The water washed away his dried blood. It spread out in swirls. The lovely pink waters joined with the darker shade of crimson. A sight of contamination.

A bottle suddenly popped out from beneath the water. It tapped his palm gently once afloat, an announcement of its arrival perhaps. He grasped at it but the wetness of his hand combined with the wetness surrounding the object made it difficult to keep hold of. He squeezed it much too tightly and up it went, out of his hands and into the air. It came down onto the hard wooden surface of the boat and crashed into a million pieces at his feet.

The message that had been safely nestled inside the bottle survived. It lay there waiting for him, as it had been for god knows how long. He picked it up with one hand while his other slipped into his jacket pocket to retrieve Amy's glasses. He slipped them on and smoothed the paper out before he began to read.

The first two words release a monstrosity of hope that even he can't deny.

_Hello, Dad_

"Jenny." He says fondly. It was cause for a smile to spread across his face.

Two words. That's all it took. Two words and both his hearts felt lighter than before. There was more in the letter. She informed him that she was still out there, alive and hopefully making him proud. The closing sentence gave him all he needed to know.

_Catch me if you can_

Oh, this was definitely worth the return of 'Geronimo'. The Tardis was alive and ready when he came bursting through her front doors.

"Okay, Old Girl," A dozen or so pulls here and a single push there, common reflexes gained from years of piloting his Tardis. One last lever and she was off. " Geronimo!"

* * *

**AN: I just really love exploring the _Dark!_Doctor side of Eleven and I felt that the quote from The Family Of Blood fits perfectly for the tone of this chapter, BUT, the return of Eleven's catchphrase is marking the beginning of all that has yet to come. ;)**


	11. Ten

**_Ten._**

Jenny watched her sister as she slept and was filled with a joy spreading over to both her hearts. She had a sister. She had family. She was loving every second of it.

Amy had passed the letters Jenny had given as proof of her claims and then Amy passed them onto her granddaughter. Jenny felt a panic work itself up for all the information that came attached to those papers there was one thing Mins wasn't meant to see.

Of course, Jenny wasn't meant to either, foreknowledge and all, but she knew the consequences. She knew not to let it cloud whatever it was that needed to happen in order to let things work out the way they were supposed to. The proper way. Oswin had been very clear on those orders and Jenny wasn't about to let her down, or her father.

Captain Jack had prepared them a proper space to hide away and remain undetected in the Torchwood building. Jenny's redheaded sister remained a quiet presence in her company. Mins mostly ate when she had to, read to pass the time and slept when night time came. Jenny was very concerned for her and knew she had to do something to gain the girls trust. Sooner rather than later.

She's truly thankful that in all the commotion surrounding them it left Mins not too concerned with the letters she'd brought along in her rucksack. That left Jenny with an advantage. She could sneak one specific part of those letters away without Mins knowing and then properly destroy it.

Before she did though, against all her better judgment, she read it one last time. Because even she needed hope. She needed faith to guide her in moments she felt overcome with doubt and strength to give Mins when she'd start to question their journey too. She needed a reminder that this would all work out in the end.

Their father had written it to Amy himself but at the point in time he'd composed the letter he'd done so with a different face. Jenny grins once her eyes start in on the first part of the letter.

_Amelia Pond, _

_My sweet little Amelia. I realize you have no reason to trust this because my penmanship is different from the last face but I can assure you I won't take offense to that. This time, anyway. I've, quite obviously, regenerated. It was a long while ago actually. _

_I missed you and the Roman for a long time, quite helplessly I'm afraid, and I've never stopped missing you. It brought me immense suffering to let my mind slip to the times we spent together, running and having adventures and those ridiculous weddings of ours that included the destruction of the entire universe once or twice. Such weddings are hard to top. You were truly amazing, my Ponds, both of you, yet remembering the happy times did nothing to stop my heartache. It did nothing to stop me from lingering in the worst parts of myself. Then this new face came along and I found peace for the first time since I'd lost you all. I now think of the times we had together and they make me swell with happiness. _

_I can't tell you how long it will take or what happens after this moment, the one that is happening right now for you as you read this letter, but I can tell you that we found each other. She's safe and happy. She's flying the Tardis as I write, Jenny at her side. She says her Dad's too old to be making a fuss over coordinates and to sit down before I induce onto myself another face. I pop up with grey hairs on my head with this face, a mature look now, one to be respected and taken seriously, and all I get in return is bullied for finally taking appearance of a man of my age. It's truly wonderful. _

_I can never thank you enough for taking care of her and loving her because her mother was right. I would have not been safe for her at that point in my life, and I want to thank you for never losing faith in me, especially when you should have. She's all her mother's cheek and her spirit and beauty. How I do wish you were here to see it, see us. All of us. Can't elaborate on that one I'm afraid, spoilers, but you're clever. I think you can work it out for yourself. I'm so proud of you because you were right too. You and Rory, together, as it should be. You're my most beloved fairytale and I will love you always. Nighty-night Pond. _

_Your, upgraded version from the baby faced madman you know and love, Raggedy Doctor_

_Oh, and PS, you'd be overjoyed to find I've moved past my bowtie phase but you have no say on the Fez. I'm keeping the Fez, deal with it._

Jenny really can't wait for the end of this chapter and the beginning of the next.

**XXX**

The Doctor figured the three friends he'd promised to help deserved an update of his whereabouts. Vastra would most definitely be pleased about him staying in touch. He relayed as much as he could without giving too much away, leaving a message when no one answered his call.

"Quick check in this time, can't talk for long. Things have gotten complicated, good complicated, and I need to attend to those matters first and foremost. Don't worry," he gave a breath of relief, "I've got a plan."

Once that was done he started taking educated guesses at what planets his daughter might possibly be drawn to. She'd proved to be more alike to him than he'd been willing to admit and when he finally did she'd been taken from him.

Or so he thought.

After half an hour of working through possible places to start looking, the phone in his Tardis rang. Instead of moving over to grab it he flipped a switch on the console that served as a handless operator so he could continue moving around the Tardis instead of needing to stay in one place. Cell phones had speaker buttons, his Tardis had full room communication receptors.

"Yes?" he answered, typing in a command for the Tardis to look back for any disruptions in space that had been righted with the help of an unnamed source. He'd never made a big fuss to be acknowledged for his helping those who needed it and he knew Jenny wouldn't care much for that either. He entrusted onto the Old Girl to search through time ranging from the day Jenny came to be in Messaline all those years ago up until this very moment. He would have liked to run a scan for future events but it was never a good idea to gain foreknowledge of things yet to come.

"Doctor." The voice resonated off the walls and echoed throughout the entire room. He recognized the voice immediately.

"Kate Lethbridge-Stewart." The Doctor greeted. "What can I help you with?"

He could practically feel the hesitance on her end.

"Kate? What is it? What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong, Doctor." Kate assured. "Peculiar is more the word. Intruding might be the second."

"Okay." The Doctor replied. He wasn't entirely sure how this would play out and he was ambivalent over the suspense creeping up on him. He decided urging her to continue would make them both feel better, so he did. "Please do go on, I'm all ears."

"I received a phone call the other day. The Tardis phone number was on display so I took the call."

"Right." The Doctor uttered. "Perhaps a future version of me, haven't done that yet. To my knowledge, that is."

"It wasn't you, Doctor." Kate informed him. "It was a woman."

Hope clutched at him. "Did she give a name?"

"No, Doctor. She did not."

"Blimey." He sighed. "That would have been too easy anyway."

"Doctor, I do maintain that this is none of my business, I told the woman as such but she pleaded me to ask something of you."

The Doctor listened with rapt attention.

"Do you have a certain flash drive in your possession?" Kate inquired.

His hand fled to rest over his jacket pocket. "Yes. Yes, I do."

"She was very adamant for me to convince you to upload the information it into the Tardis." Kate relayed. "And that the Tardis would know what to do from there."

The Doctor pulled the small object from his pocket and stared at it wistfully.

"There's one more thing she mentioned." She continued.

The Doctor blinked his focus back to the present. "What was it?"

"The Library."

**XXX**

Martha Jones arrived in Cardiff well past midnight. Jack had called claiming urgent business needing to be settled with the utmost discretion. He said he couldn't elaborate much more over the phone but Martha had more than an inkling of exactly what this urgent business pertained to.

When she arrived only Jack was there to greet her. He pulled her into a hug before they walked together, side by side.

"Well," Martha shrugged, "I'm here, Captain. What's the problem? And is this a night off? I didn't think Torchwood had such a thing."

Jack smiled but didn't answer. Instead he asked after her family and if they were okay.

Martha looked away. "They're still coping."

"The year that never was." Jack shook his head. "Not so good times."

Martha waited expectantly.

"Okay. Something happened about a week ago. Something that even UNIT can't know about. No one can." Jack beckoned her to follow after him into his office. "I had to erase the memory of all my employees." He confessed guiltily. "I trust them with my life but I can't trust them with this. I can't trust anyone but you. Once you see them, you'll know what it means and why I had to do what I did."

Martha nodded. "It's about the Doctor, isn't it?"

Jack smiled sadly. "Isn't it always?"

"I won't tell a soul." Martha promised. "You have my word."

"I knew I would." He told her. "Come with me."

He led her down the corridor, passing the conference room and the examination room. He led her far into the Torchwood base up to a room that had no furniture. It only had a door to step through, a single light on the ceiling and four walls. Jack closed the door and locked it before taking a card out from his pocket and walking across the room. He held the card up to the wall and Martha watched what she knew to be a perception filter fall away.

"Oh my god." She exhaled, recognizing the blonde immediately. "Jenny?"

"Martha Jones!" Jenny exclaimed with a wave.

"But you're… you're supposed to be dead." Martha looked to Jack then back to Jenny. She moved forward until she was right in front of the Doctor's daughter. "We saw you die and… but how?"

"I am my father's daughter." She reminded.

"This can't be." Still, a smile spread over Martha's face. "He's going to be so happy you're alive."

"He can't know." Jack said, walking over to them both but his eyes rested on something else Martha hadn't noticed.

Martha followed his gaze and found another girl was in the room. She had bright red hair that fell over her face as she slept. Martha could put it all together from there. The Doctor not only one daughter, but two.

Martha's heart broke for the Doctor. She knew what it would mean to him, how dear and healing the gift of family would bring him.

"You did the right thing, Jack." Martha said finally. "What do you need me to do?"

* * *

**AN:** I was not overly confident about this one (but then again I never am when it comes to my writing).

For the sake of clarification, Martha and Jack are referring to the events that took place in the final three episodes Doctor Who Series 3 (_Utopia,_ _The Sound Of Drums _&_The End Of The Time Lords)_.

Also, the letter Jenny reread that was addressed to Amy was from our lovely new Doctor, number Twelve. Because Capaldi is going to be brilliant and having to wait this long in order to see him in action is proving to be very, very hard. It'll be worth it obviously but that doesn't change the fact that waiting is no fun at all.


	12. Eleven

_**Eleven.**_

* * *

**" **But then BANG ZAP! We were off again because Thief had a wedding to dance at. And dancing faster was River Song.

I could smell what she was - she came from me.

Once I taught her how to fly. And once I let her die.  
Once she loved me. Once she shot me.

I could see that all at the same time. I liked her, mothered her.  
One day I would like to teach her to wheeze-groan without me. But the Doctor danced and River danced, and the more they danced the more trouble grew around them.

Something wanted Thief because they hated Thief. They stole River's mother, they stole River - they made it all so tangled.

Thief and River were looped around each other like wool. He had a scarf once. Long scarf. It smelled of lavender and aluminium. I liked that scarf. It looked good in loops. And sometimes good stories are in loops. **"**

**- The Tardis ** _(The Doctor: His Life And Times)_

* * *

To take a leap of faith. He _could_ do that. It's a reasonable ask. Thing is, he's all out of faith to give. Indications of Jenny still being alive and out there somewhere had been enough to revive a semblance of hope but the Doctor isn't sure he can reach past that. Hope, he fears, is all he can muster.

_The Tardis would know what to do._

And didn't she always? Aside from how painful the last few days had been the Old Girl had done just that. She knew and so she gave him what he'd needed.

In the end it wasn't hope or faith that prompted the Doctor to upload the contents of John Smith's flash drive into the Tardis. It was something long known to him of his beloved blue box. He could trust her, so he did.

"There you are, Old Girl." The Doctor patted the console when the upload was complete. "Do what you must."

What followed was a reply full of glee and warmth and resounding with all that made her home.

"You beautiful idiot, I do what needs to be done, always."

It seems something of the impossible keeps turning up these days. He wouldn't dare complain of it though because there she was. The luminous form of the woman the Tardis had embodied once. The body of the human Idris was only a glimmer of warm yellow and orange outlines, no solid person, no true substance, but she _was_ there.

"Hello," the Tardis greeted, "Thief."

"Is this what's ahead of me then?" the Doctor neared the image of his blue box in human form. "Surprises of the loveliest kinds, because I must warn you, I could get used to this."

The Tardis used Idris's face and features to give him the loveliest of smiles he'd seen in his most recent years.

"Oh," she sounded absolutely delighted, "must I really say it? Can I?"

The undertones of her meaning were clear so he prompted her on with a wave of his hand.

"Spoilers." The Tardis laughed. She was a whimsical echo. "So far behind, Thief. Always so far behind. Catch up, catch up, you must, you must."

The Doctor grinned, enjoying her seemingly senseless rambling.

"I knew you'd catch up, you always do, always and completely. You said." She reminded with a nod of her head. "And when you ran from her in the beginning you were only ever running toward her. Silly Thief." The Tardis chastised, moving around her own floors and leaving a trail of golden billowy sparks at every turn. "You ran to every inch of the universe, away and away, and then you always came back to me. To home. My parts are hers. We both feel like home, don't we?

"And she sounded like me! Like me without the breaks on." The Tardis danced her way around, Idris's dress swaying and swaying. "You heard, didn't you? When you knew, you must have! That's why she insisted so very long ago. The brakes, she said, and then you made Me sounds."

Ah, yes. How could he forget his first glimpse of River's mad entrances? She jumped out of a bloody spaceship and had her red heels hanging about the console like she'd owned the place. She was very rude that day too, didn't even ask him if she could drive she'd just gone and done it. And Amy was no help in the matter. Took to her daughter with open arms, she did. They hadn't known then. They'd had no concept of just who River Song would come to be. _Theirs._

"She didn't want you to hear, not yet, now when your eyes said who are you and your heartbeats didn't call her name. And if you heard her then you'd have known, then you'd have known."

The Tardis gave her familiar wheezing-groan and he can recall with vast detail the feel of his wife. River's spirit and cheek was all Pond, her hearts beat brave and true like the Centurion, but her skin was like the Mother who'd completed her. River's skin felt like home because the Tardis stitched herself in since the beginning. The Tardis had, in many ways, given him the human (plus) personification of home.

"Pretty One!" His Tardis exclaimed suddenly. She seems surprised by how the words tumbled from her without prior intention. The Doctor rolled his eyes. Rory being named as the Pretty One was something he never even attempted to get into.

"I sang of her song to the Pretty One."

His Tardis says _sang_ and _song_ and what she means is _words_.

"You said, Rory said you kept repeating…"

"The only water in the forest is the river." Her face lit up with such affection.

"Did you know all along? At my first, her-"

"Last," she let loose a mother's wail and dimmed before his eyes. With her energy restoring back into the machine her wail faded to a tremulous wobble.

"Alas," he uttered. "Time is up, yes?"

"There are firsts and there are lasts." Her voice was losing its frequency. "The first time we spoke was then, and John Smith has given us our last. There can never be one without the other."

The Doctor placed his hands at the edge of the console for support. Once his Tardis was back inside her proper skin all she'd be able to converse with would be satisfied rumbles and protesting groans.

"You are alive." She had become devoid of light and of color. Fading away right in front of him. "And yet you are sad. Always so sad. Nothing is over until it's over and alive should only be sad when it's over."

"But isn't it?" the Doctor pressed. He could not bear having his hopes attaching to River again. He could not suffer being lied to.

Even at the start they were over. He and River had been destined for endings at every beginning. He'd known from that exact instant, with only one whisper, that he'd never survive her. He didn't know who she was and the most infuriating part of it all, besides being faced with an inconceivable future with this woman, one who knew his name and who would lay claim to both his hearts, was that he didn't love her then but something deep inside told him that he already did. He had loved her since that first meeting, without sound reason and full of guilt and dread, he'd loved her.

A terrible silence fell over the Doctor and his blue box. The Tardis slowly raised her fading hands, examining them with a passionate curiosity. She then focused her attention back to her Thief.

"And of course it's over." He muttered, heartbroken.

"Not even nearly." She echoed, her voice carried away like ripples. "So many loops, Thief. Not over. Not even nearly over."

She faded from his sight. Throughout the rest of the night he keeps talking, keeps conversation as if she was still there to answer back. And she does. Her voice is a wheeze, sometimes a groan.

**XXX**

That Doctor had finally done what he should've done a long time ago. If Oswin could have a word with him she'd give him a proper scolding. She'd scold his ear off because, bloody hell, it's about damn time. S'not like the Shadows in the Library keep finding ways to get through firewalls all for want of adding Professor River Song onto the menu or anything, right?

All in all, preparing the proper programming takes far too many days and that many more nights. Then comes the uploading and decoding and rerouting and getting it up and running. Honestly, keeping the Shadows at bay never used to be a preference and the fact that life has come to that is just downright sad.

Things eventually came together as they needed to be and that was the only part that mattered. River Song would come to no harm while Oswin played her part, and boy, did she have a big one.

"Well, everything's set. Just need to add a little more _me_ into it."

Jenny's face comes to mind and she's got red flag signals going off in her head and an urgent need get the hell out of the Library. She's a big ball of jittery nerves, mostly because she hadn't exactly shared this last part of the process with the woman she loved. Jenny would be extremely miffed about the lack of communication and Oswin only hopes she'll be around long enough to take the fallout, to say _sorry_ and_please forgive me_. Not even Jenny could have talked her out of this. Nothing could or would have swayed Oswin from this. It was what she was meant to do.

_Such a clever girl, my Jenny._ _So lovely and kind and mine, all mine._

The heart she'd gained from knowing Jenny grew heavy, and not for the first time of her existence had her duties seemed so utterly unfair. She wishes to stay, wishes she had the ability of free will but she doesn't. Not with this. Her programming was created for this purpose, her automatic setting would kick in if anything were to disturb this process. This happening was nonnegotiable. For goodness sake, she'd not even known of what negotiable consisted of before Jenny's came in and inquired Oswin to voice her thoughts. She'd not really thought about much, she'd just do as Cal bid her.

Before Jenny she'd functioned for one purpose and one purpose only. It was all numbers and the watching, always with the endless watching. Never once had it occurred to Oswin that she didn't properly exist. She was part of the cleanup system, part of the computer. She knew nothing of thought or questioning her duties. She knew nothing of skipping out for something called fun and feeling and, the best one, the thing called love.

Oh, but Jenny came along and for the first time Oswin became aware and gained the ability to perceive. Because of Jenny she'd felt more solid, more real. _Alive_. Because of Jenny she'd evolved beyond the computer and become something more than sentient. In time she could touch and hold and feel but it was never permanent. She could only sustain such solidity for so long before she started ghosting again.

Oswin'd been so lucky to have met her. So privileged to fall in love with her and blessed with the miraculous happening that Jenny fell back. It was simple to fall in love with her. Jenny was beauty and life and knowledge was always so different when coming from Jenny's lips than from the operative memory mode built in with her design. It's quite inconceivable that one could fall in love with a computer entity. That Jenny, someone who was solid and alive and _real_, never thought of Oswin as a part of the computer. Instead Jenny saw a being who needed a nudge in the right direction to learn how to simply _be_.

_You are human._ Jenny would whisper on those nights they'd spend together, the nights where Oswin was able to sustain her impermanent figure. One that could touch and be touched. _You are human_ said again and again and again before the inevitable came and Oswin ghosted. For all whiles that Jenny was near Oswin could almost believe that it was true.

"I am human." Oswin whispered one last time, for her precious Jenny. "My clever girl, please…"

Oswin bites on her bottom lip, containing the sob she very much wants to let free. And she knows these humanistic features, these tears on her cheeks are images that are conjured solely from perception of those thoughts. They are the equivalent of a drawing on a page. They aren't real, they never are when she's an image rather than a solid entity. They _feel_ real though, that's all that matters.

"Remember me." She begs.

Oswin feels her physical image start to disintegrate. The pixels that make up her visual appearance disjoint in bits and slowly they fade, downloading directly into River Song's desolate consciousness.

Oswin 27810. The first and only model created from the Lux security software program _I.M-P0SS1BL(3)*TM _

For she's the Keeper Of The Forest and the only water in the forest is the River.


End file.
